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New Sweden Chapel near Lockridge to host 175th anniversary celebration
FAIRFIELD – First Augustana Lutheran Church in Lockridge is celebrating the 175th anniversary of its founding congregation by a group of Swedish immigrants in 1848.
The parishioners will host a special service to mark the occasion at 10:30 a.m. Sunday, Sept. 10 at New Sweden Chapel north of Lockridge at Four Corners. The public is invited to join the parishioners for cookies and punch. The Rev. Dan Kuckuck, assistant to Bishop Amy Current of the Southeast Iowa Synod, will be the guest speaker.
The congregation of First Augustana Lutheran Church holds its regular services in Lockridge, but the members hold a couple of services per year at the historic New Sweden Chapel. The church building was constructed in 1860, making it one of the oldest structures in the county. The First Augustana Lutheran Church congregation is responsible for maintaining the building, which in 1977 was added to the National Register of Historic Places.
According to the Fairfield Cultural Association’s guide to historic landmarks, Swedish immigrants to southeast Iowa formed a congregation in 1848 which became the oldest congregation in the Evangelical Lutheran Augustana Synod of North America. Their first services were held in a log-built church. The FCA guide indicates that by 1858, about 500 people lived in the town of New Sweden, north of Lockridge. The guide states that the first Swedish Methodist Church west of the Mississippi River was organized in New Sweden in 1850.
A history of this era compiled by First Augustana Lutheran Church shows that in 1845, a group of about 25 Swedes boarded a ship and headed for the United States, planning to join the Swedish settlement of Pine Lake Colony in Wisconsin. However, after eight weeks at sea, when they arrived in New York they discovered that land was cheaper in Iowa, so they decided to move there instead. They purchased land 40 miles west of Burlington for their new settlement, which they named Stockholm, and later became New Sweden.
Historical documents collected by the church show that there were 13 Swedish families living in the area by 1848, when the first Lutheran congregation was founded. The parishioners met in a log church, but outgrew that and in 1860 built the church that is still standing to this day. One hundred years after the congregation’s founding, a massive observance was held in 1948 to celebrate the Synod’s centennial, which included more than 3,000 guests attending special events at the New Sweden Chapel. The chapel was dedicated as a shrine of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of North America.
First Augustana Lutheran Church parishioner Saundra Ensminger said that, though her church is small with Sunday attendance around 8-10 people, the members do what they can to maintain the historic New Sweden Chapel. Volunteers fixed the shudders on the windows so they are in working order, and in recent years the chapel has received a new roof and a fresh coat of paint.
“Everything is original,” she said. “We have a pump organ upstairs that somebody just restored.”
The chapel does not have heating, air conditioning, or electricity. It does not have a bathroom, either. Nevertheless, the congregation at First Augustana Lutheran Church is doing what it can to keep this piece of history alive by continuing to hold services there more than a century and a half after its construction.
Call Andy Hallman at 641-575-0135 or email him at andy.hallman@southeastiowaunion.com
