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priority. The Marine settlement is the oldest among the
many Swedish communities in Minnesota, having this
year completed three quarters of a century of existence,
an event which last June was celebrated with festivities
that aroused much interest and were given wide publicity
in the press. The Vasa settlement was founded by Col.
Hans Mattson, and this year its Swedish Lutheran
Congregation celebrated its seventieth anniversary.
* * *
The two letters by Rev. Andrew Jackson, a wise and
noble leader among the Swedish pioneers, especially in
the cause of education, have been furnished the
publication committee for this issue by his son, Senator J. A.
Jackson of St. Paul, vice president of the Swedish
Historical Society. The reader will not fail to notice
two points in these letters that are particularly
interesting and significant. The first is the intimation which
the writer gives that on coming among his own
countrymen in Minnesota his desire to return to Sweden almost
entirely disappeared. During his first five years in
America, Jackson had practically no contact with his
own countrymen and during this time he evidently
looked upon his sojourn in America as merely
temporary. The second and more significant point is his
testimony that even while the pioneer Swedes were
building their simple homes in the wilderness and
breaking their first acres of ground they were vitally
concerned about the ideal values of life. To provide means
for their own spiritual and intellectual uplift by building
churches and organizing schools was to them from the
beginning a matter of prime importance. What these
letters have to say on this point is not an isolated bit of
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