The Runaway Friend

Kathleen Ernst

The Story Behind the Story

Although I have enjoyed writing about Kit and Josefina, I must admit that I was hoping all along that my editor at American Girl would invite me to write a Kirsten book. The story of European immigrants moving to the Upper Midwest is very close to my heart.

In the spring of 1982, I moved to Wisconsin to take a job at a large historic site called Old World Wisconsin. This outdoor ethnic museum helps visitors gain insight into the lives of some of the Germans, Norwegians, Danes, and many other ethnic groups which began settling here in the mid-1800s.

Old World Wisconsin does not have any Swedish buildings, but a lot of the experiences I had there helped me appreciate Kirsten's story. The photograph on the right shows me knitting in the doorway of the 1845 Fossebrekke cabin, home to Norwegian immigrants. I loved working in this particular building, and helping visitors imagine the challenges and rewards of leaving Europe and trying to make a new home. So I went into this project with a fair amount of knowledge about European immigrants coming from Scandinavia to the Upper Midwest in the mid-1900s.

The Minnesota Historical Society in St. Paul houses a museum, library, and archives (and a very nice cafe!) under one roof. (photo courtesy MHS)

I needed to focus in on Swedish immigrants to Minnesota in the 1850s. I began at the Minnesota Historical Society in St. Paul. I looked at exhibits, read old books and magazine, and studied old newspapers preserved on microfilm. My best find was a huge collection of unpublished reminiscences about the pioneer era. A lot of the details in The Runaway Friend come from those accounts.

I also visited the American Swedish Institute in Minneapolis. The museum located in this beautiful old mansion documents the Swedish-American community through photographs, diaries, and immigrant artifacts.

Me at the American Swedish Institute. It's especially lovely when decorated for Christmas!

It was also important to visit the area where the first Swedish settlements in Minnesota were founded. Kirsten's family, arriving as they did in 1854, would have been among the earliest Swedish families to settle here. I went in search of clues that might help me imagine what her life might have been like.

The Chisago Lakes area, home to many of the early Swedish immigrants to Minnesota, is a short drive northeast of the Twin Cities of St. Paul and Minneapolis. Historical signs and markers helped me locate significant locations, such as Taylors Falls. Can you imagine traveling up the river on a steamboat like the one pictured below?

It's easy, even today, to imagine the landscape that Kirsten's family found when they left the steamboat.

Stone walls still visible in a few yards in Taylors Falls were made by Swedish immigrants.

From the river, lucky immigrants may have traveled to their new homes by oxcart, such as the one pictured in the sign (right), to their new home. Others, like Kirsten's family, had to walk.

Scandia was the site of the first Swedish settlement in Minnesota. In 1850, the first log cabin was built there, on the shores of Hay Lake. I knew I needed to visit Scandia!

I headed first to the local museum. "Gammelgården" means Old Farm in Swedish. Here visitors can step back in history and experience the lives of early Swedish immigrants in the only open air museum devoted to Swedish immigration in the United States.

I had the chance to see a number of artifacts. What can you learn by looking at these items?

A number of old buildings have been moved to Gammelgården. On the day I was there, children were participating in the museum's "Coming to Amerika" program. It was fun to see the kids participating in activities that helped them imagine life as it would have been for Kirsten in the 1850s.

One of the docents kindly took a moment to show me this old sleigh (right). You'd want to wrap up in lots of cloaks and blankets before setting out in an open sleigh during a Minnesota winter!

		The next town I visited was Lindstrom, "America's Little Sweden." I found lots of clues to Lindstrom's cultural heritage just by walking down the main street!

Take a good look at this photo (to the right of a statue in Lindstrom. It portrays a Swedish immigrant couple. Why do you think the man and the woman might be looking in two different directions?

This statue depicts Karl Oskar and his wife Kristina, fictitious characters in a famous novel called The Emigrants, by Wilhelm Moberg. Karl Oskar is looking ahead to the future. Kristina, always homesick for Sweden, is looking over her shoulder.

Before leaving the area I visited Glader Cemetery. It was poignant to read some of the gravestones. They told stories of real people who had lost loved ones, often children. I can't imagine how it must have felt. The cemetery is on a beautiful spot, overlooking a lake, and I hope the natural beauty provided a little solace to those who buried family members there.

My last stop was at nearby Center City. According to this sign, a Lutheran church was founded here in 1854. That tells me that faith was important to many of the early arrivals.

The original church--log, no doubt--was replaced in 1882 by a brick structure.

A memorial, with Swedish and English text, celebrates the church's heritage.