Founders

Newly ordained by the Augustana Lutheran Synod, Pastor Swensson arrived in Lindsborg in June 1879 to succeed Rev. Dr. Olof Olsson, who had moved to a position at Augustana College and Seminary in Rock Island, Illinois. For 25 years Swensson served church, community, state, Swedish-America, and (from 1881) his beloved Bethany College — until his sudden death.
Swensson was only 22 years old when he became pastor of the Lindsborg community’s first church with 675 members, at the heart of the settlement.  Residents had appreciated him from a year and a half earlier, when he was a member of the popular touring Augustana Silver Cornet Band. There were major contrasts between Swensson — energetic, forceful, high-achieving, a natural leader — and Olsson, who was quiet, scholarly, mild-mannered. Both were committed Christians with läsare pietistic backgrounds.
Lindsborg residents, who were mostly Swedish-born and with that background, soon discovered that his sermons (preached in Swedish during his entire ministry) were outstanding in content and excellence of language.  He did have a thorough knowledge of the old country.

-From a biography of Carl Aaron Swensson , written by A. John Pearson

A. John, class of 1959, was the Director of Public Relations at Bethany from 1970 through 1992, and served as Director of Archives & Heritage Center, and Director of Sports Information from 1992 until 2004. A. John retired after serving as volunteer Director of the Archives 2004-2006.

To read the full text click here.

On February 15, 1880, he married Alma Lind of Moline, Illinois — a highly talented musician, gifted leader, and a person who added greatly to her husband’s resources through faithful support and inspiration.  They had two daughters, Bertha and Annie Theo.
Swensson’s founding of Bethany College represented a great venture in faith.  He recognized that early founding visions had come from Olsson and his Värmland beloved friends.  But it was he who, after a summer 1881 meeting in Lindsborg by the national Augustana Synod, “could not rid myself of the thought that the right time was at hand” to build the school or “air-castle” as many called it.

Swensson said: “I saw how God had blessed our settlements in this beautiful, flourishing, and liberty-loving state.  But how our children and youth should obtain the necessary Christian education was a question….”   The date set to open the Bethany Academy was October 15, 1881.  J.A. Udden, a recent Augustana College graduate, was engaged as the teacher.  [Smoky Valley People, by Emory Kempton Lindquist, Bethany College Press, 1953, Pp.86ff.]

The college grew rapidly, and within five years enrollment was at 161. Then a large five-story Old Main building was constructed, even while many pioneer supporters lived in dugouts.

On April 12, 1881, Carl Swensson was present in Rock Island for the first rendition there of Handel’s great oratorio, the “Messiah.” Inspiration for the oratorio society there had been brought by Dr. Olof Olsson after visiting London. It didn’t take long until Carl and his wife Alma soon had a chorus rehearsing in Lindsborg, and the first Lindsborg “Messiah” renditions were presented in March 1882, with orchestral help from Illinois.

Who could have known the extent to which the Lindsborg tradition would grow, to become the major internationally-known festival and religious presentation of community and college?

Swensson produced an amazing range and amount of writing, including books, pamphlets, and hundreds of newspaper articles.

He traveled widely and was a popular speaker, although sometimes controversial
.Near the end he knew that his earth days would be short.  A few weeks before his death, while in Brockton, Massachusetts, he said “I won’t live to be old. I have something wrong here,” pointing to his heart
.Three thousand people came to Lindsborg for the funeral and burial
.The Kansas City Star observed editorially: “It is scarcely too much to say that Dr. Swensson was at the time of his death the most famous man in Kansas, and his fame will grow as his remarkable achievements are revealed in the light of history. He accomplished what few men have thought of attempting.
”Historian Dr. Emory Lindquist later wrote: “His great view of life was based upon his great Christian resources of faith and hope. His outstanding capacity for friendship, his unfailing optimism, his immense vision shaped a pattern of achievement that made for greatness. Swensson was a prominent public figure, but he always was most intimately identified with Lindsborg and Bethany College. His many activities were based upon their potential contributions to the great cause in the Smoky Valley. The people there knew him well, appreciated him, believed in him…. It is singularly true that no one person among the Swedish Americans established such a hold upon the imagination of the people as did Carl Swensson.”

• Born June 25, 1857, Chandler’s Valley near Sugar Grove, Pennsylvania.
• Died February 16, 1904, at Los Angeles, California.
• Founder of Bethany College, October 15, 1881;  Second President 1888-1904.
• Pastor of Bethany Lutheran Church, Lindsborg, Kansas: 1879-1904.
• Ordained into the ministry of the Lutheran Church, June 22, 1879.