Nya Upsala, Wisconsin

New Upsala (Swedish: Nya Uppsala) also referred to as the Pine Lake Settlement, was an early pioneer Swedish-American community in Wisconsin. New Upsala was a short-lived settlement of Swedish immigrants founded by Gustaf Unonius. It was located in the north central section of Waukesha County, Wisconsin, near the town of Merton, outside the communities of Delafield, and Chenequa.

Gustaf Unonius

Gustaf Elias Marius Unonius was born of Swedish parents in Helsinki, Finland (Swedish: Helsingfors) in 1810. Unonius came to the United States from Uppsala, Sweden in 1841 settling in Waukesha County, Wisconsin. Gustaf Unonius, staked a claim on the east shore of Pine Lake. He named the settlement New Upsala after the historic Swedish university city of Uppsala and pursued his dream to establish a Swedish cultural and intellectual center on the frontier. By 1842, he and several associates had started the process of building the new town him called Nya Uppsala. By 1848, several families had relocated to the community and a log cabin had been completed to house the Scandinavian Parish at Pine Lake.^[1]

However, shortly thereafter Unonius relocated to Manitowoc County, Wisconsin, where he became an Episcopal priest. Much of the community subsequently disbanded. He had attracted an assortment of nobles, theologians, merchants, teachers and military officers. The choice of land was not a practical location for a settlement. The lake shore was stony and the soil unproductive. The colony failed almost as soon as it was started.^[2]

The Scandinavian Parish at Pine Lake

The Scandinavian Parish at Pine Lake was established March 3, 1844, with the dedication of Holy Innocents Cemetery. The original Log Cabin church was constructed and dedicated during 1848. In 1850 the congregation split with one group formed St. John's English Lutheran Church of Stone Bank in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin.

The other part of the congregation remained at the original log church and cemetery grounds. In 1864 this part became known as Holy Innocents Episcopal Church, Nashotah. In 1895, the last survivor of the original Scandinavian Parish legally transferred the land to Holy Innocents. In 1962, Holy Innocents merged with Grace-Holy Innocents Episcopal Church in Hartland, Wisconsin. In 1975, the name was changed to St. Anskar’s Episcopal Church. Today there remains an active cemetery on the former church site located on the west side of Highway C, approximately 1½ miles north of Nashotah.^[3]

Memoirs

Unonius returned to Sweden in 1858, having lived in the United States for 17 years. The stories of his travels to the United States and the trials and tribulations of life on the frontier were the subject of his two-volume memoirs which were published in 1862. A partial translation of his memoirs, A Pioneer in Northwest America 1841–1858: The Memoirs of Gustaf Unonius, was published in 1960 for the Swedish Pioneer Historical Society (today the Swedish-American Historical Society) by the University of Minnesota Press.

At the request of the Minister of Sweden, the State Historic Society of Wisconsin commissioned the writing of a history of the New Upsala settlement. The history was completed by Dr. Filip A. Forsbeck and published during 1936. The history placed considerable reliance in the memoirs which Unonius had written.^[4]

Notable people

• United States District Judge A.F. St. Sure's grandfather was an early settler at Pine Lake.

References

1. ^ The Swedish settlement on Pine Lake ( by Mabel V. Hansen, Wisconsin Magazine of History. Volume:08 /Issue:1. 1924–1925) http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/wmh/archives/search.aspx?area=browse&volumn=08&articleID=4181
2. ^ Pine Lake Settlers, Merton & Delafield Townships (Waukesha County, Wisconsin Genealogy) http://www.linkstothepast.com/waukesha/pinelakebios.php
3. ^ About the Town Early History (by Jeanne Ann Frederickson. Former Town Clerk. 2004) http://www.townofmerton.com/abouttown.html
4. ^ New Upsala, the first Swedish settlement in Wisconsin (by Filip A. Forsbeck, Wisconsin Magazine of History. Volume: 19 /Issue: 2. 1935–1936) http://content.wisconsinhistory.org/cdm4/document.php?CISOROOT=/wmh&CISOPTR=10264&CISOSHOW=10160

Other sources

• Forsbeck, Filip A., New Upsala, the first Swedish Settlement in Wisconsin (Milwaukee, Wisconsin: 1936) [1]
• Stark, William F., Pine Lake (Sheboygan, Wisconsin: Zimmerman Press, 1984)

External links

• St. John’s Lutheran church at Stone Bank
• Nashotah House Theological Seminary
• St. Anskar’s Episcopal Church
• Holy Innocents Cemetery
• Swedish-American Historic Society