SWEDES. Immigrants from Sweden began coming to Texas in 1848. They were preceded by Swante M. Swenson,^qv who first came to America in 1836. Arriving in Texas by way of Baltimore and Alabama, he was joined by his uncle Swante Palm (Swen Jaensson^qv) in 1844. Swenson prospered and soon acquired a plantation in Fort Bend County. He became a friend and admirer of Sam Houston,^qv who urged him to recruit Swedish immigrants to settle the sparsely occupied interior of Texas. Swenson did as Houston suggested and brought twenty-five Swedes to Texas in 1848. They were from Barkeryd parish in northern Småland and were related to one another or to Swenson and Palm. First joining Swenson in Fort Bend County, they moved with him after he sold his plantation and slaves to a large sheep and cattle ranch just east of Austin. Swenson continued to assist his countrymen in coming to Texas by advancing passage money in return for their labor. The census of 1880 recorded 364 Swedes in Texas. The depression of 1873 slowed immigration, but the movement resumed in 1878, and the 1900 census indicated 4,344 Swedes in Texas. Immigration from Sweden had practically stopped by 1910. There had also been considerable immigration into Texas from the north central states, notably Illinois. The bulk of that movement took place between 1870 and 1900, with large numbers coming in 1893 and 1894. By the 1940s there were concentrations of Swedes and their descendants around Stamford, Lyford, Melville, Brady, Fort Worth, Dallas, and Waco. Texas place names indicating Swedish origin include Govalle, Lund, Manda, New Sweden, Hutto, Swedonia, East Sweden, West Sweden, Palm Valley, Swensondale, and Bergstrom Air Force Base.^qv In 1980 there were 8,147 people of Swedish descent in the Dallas-Fort Worth Standard Metropolitan Statistical Area, 6,569 in the Houston SMSA, and 4,795 in the Austin SMSA. The 1990 census showed 155,193 persons claiming Swedish descent.

Although the Swedish community in Texas is larger than in any other southern state, it has never played a dominate role in state culture or politics. A single newspaper, Texas-Posten, was published in Austin from 1896 to 1981 to serve the interests of the group. There were two ventures in higher education, Trinity Lutheran College of Round Rock, chartered on March 22, 1906, and Texas Wesleyan College at Austin in 1912. Both ultimately failed because of insufficient financial support. The Swedes in Texas are well on the way to losing their foreign characteristics, as the descendents are today almost completely Americanized. In 1988 a celebration entitled "New Sweden '88" commemorated the 150th anniversary of the arrival in Texas of the first Swedish immigrants. There were numerous cultural events staged in Central Texas, including an official visit by King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia of Sweden.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Magnus Morner, The Swedish Migrants to Texas (Chicago: Swedish-American Historical Society, 1987). Carl Martin Rosenquist, Swedes of Texas (Austin, 1942). Larry E. Scott, The Swedish Texans (San Antonio: University of Texas Institute of Texan Cultures, 1990). Ernest Severin, Swedes in Texas in Words and Pictures, 1838-1918, trans. Christine Andreason (Austin: "New Sweden 88" Austin Area Committee, 1994).

Art Leatherwood