Together with the stream of settlers from all corners of the globe they helped transform Minnesota from a. wilderness to a populous. vigorous. prosperous State in less than a hundred years. The early contributions of the Swedish people to the building of America. going back as they do for more than 300 years. are perhaps of equal importance. Although the great wave of immigration did not begin until about 1850. the first handful of colonists from Sweden had landed in Delaware in 1638. more than 200 years earlier. I believe it is notable that the very first book prepared for this struggling little colony was a religious volume. a translation of Luthers Catechism from Swedish into the language of the Algonquin Indians. This same deep Christian spirit characterized the latecomers as well as the early comers. and it is a vital part of the daily lives of the people of Minnesota today.
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