Around Swedish America in 548 Days - Day 81

Day 81 - Bethel University

Bethel University and Seminary — 3900 and 3949 Bethel Drive, Arden Hills (651-638-6400; www.bethel.edu).

In 1871, Dr. John Alexis Edgren from Värmiand founded a Swedish Baptist theological seminary in the Morgan Park section of Chicago. During its early years, the seminary moved to several locations, including St. Paul (1884 — 1886); Stromsburg, Nebraska (1886—1888); and back to Morgan Park in 1888. The seminary, connected with the Baptist Union Theological Seminary of Chicago, united in 1892 with the Divinity School of the University of Chicago as the Swedish Department. In October 1905, Bethel Academy was founded in Minneapolis with twenty-nine regular students, the first class sessions being held in Elim Baptist Church.

In 1913 the Swedish Baptist Conference (now the Baptist General Conference) made the decision to bring the academy and seminary together in St. Paul under the name of Bethel Academy and Seminary. The first campus was at 1480 N. Snelling Avenue (Snelling Avenue and Arlington Street). Bethel College became a four-year college in 1947 after years as a junior college, and the seminary remained at that location until 1972, when it was relocated to a 231-acre campus in suburban Arden Hills. (The former Snelling Avenue campus is now the Hubert H. Humphrey Job Corps Center.) Enrollment in 2003 at the university was about 3,300 students in undergraduate, graduate, and adult and professional studies programs; seminary enrollment was about 1,100. The university and the seminary are owned by the Baptist General Conference of America, headquartered in Arlington Heights, Illinois.

The Bethel General Conference History Center housed in the seminary contains written historical materials related to various churches of this denomination. The archives owns Fredrik Olaus Nilsson’s (1809—1881) desk and trunk and a number of portraits of early leaders. In 1854 Nilsson co-founded a Baptist congregation in Burlington, Iowa, but a year later, when that church disbanded, most of its members moved to Minnesota. In the summer of the group reached the eastern shore of Lake Waconia in Carver County, west of Minneapolis. A handful of people, including Nilsson, organized the Scandia Baptist Church and in 1857 built a small log church, which may have been the first house of worship in Carver County. In 1910 a porch and small steeple were added. In 1973 the building was moved to the Bethel University and Seminary campus, where it is preserved as a symbol of the faith of the early Swedish Baptists in Minnesota. Near the front door is a marker noting: “Scandia Baptist Church The oldest extant Baptist General Conference church building. Erected in 1857 near Lake Waconia Minnesota.”

In 1987 the interior was refurbished to a late nineteenth-century style. In the small vestibule is a plaque in memory of ft 0. Nilsson that notes the other nine charter members of the Scandia Baptist Church. Inside, visitors can see the handmade pews and the old organ. On the exterior left side of the church, the log construction and dovetailing (the logs have been covered with clapboard) is visible. The building is used for weddings and by seminary students practicing preaching. Visitors may ask for the key at the seminary administration office across the drive.

Among the original communicants of the Scandia Baptist Church was Andrew (Anders) Peterson, who became a famous horticulturist in Carver County. From 1850 until his death in 1898, Peterson kept extensive diaries totaling twelve volumes and wrote numerous letters to Sweden. These manuscripts were a source for Vilhelm Moberg’s novels, The Emigrants, Unto a Good Land, The Settlers, and Last Letter Home, and two movies based on Moberg’s work. Moberg used Peterson as a model for Karl Oskar. The Minnesota Historical Society (651-296-6126) in St. Paul has Peterson’s original diaries. Microfilm copies are in the University of Minnesota Immigration History Research Center, 222 S. Twenty-first Avenue, Minneapolis.

The modern Bethel University and Seminary campus has a number of buildings named for Swedish Americans, including the impressive Lundquist Community Life Center and Benson Great Hall (Carl Lundquist was president of Bethel from 1954 to 1982; Donald E. Benson, a businessman, was a generous donor to the university); Hagstrom Student Services Center (G. Arvid Hagstrom was president of Bethel from 1914 to 1941); Edgren Residence (John Alexis Edgren was founder of Bethel and its dean, 1871—1887); Bodien Residence (Mrs. Olaf Bodien was the leader of the Bethel Institute’s Kvinnoförbund or Women’s Society); Nelson Residence (Reuben Nelson was executive secretary of the Minnesota Baptists, and his wife, Effie, was dean of women); Lurdquist Library in the seminary complex; and Wingblade Residence (Henry Wingblade was a Baptist pastor and president of Bethel College from 1963 to 1972). In the lobby of the Community Life Center is a 13 by 16 foot, acrylic-on-canvas wall hanging by Dale R. Johnson commemorating the 125th anniversary of Bethel College and Seminary. It is entitled Proclaiming God's Faithfulness To All Generations (1871—1996) and includes key Baptist events and persons.