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History
in a Pecan Shell
New
Sweden dates from 1876 when the community of Knight's Ranch took its name from
the New Sweden
Evangelical Lutheran Church. New Sweden has a dignified ring to it and we
should all be glad they didn't choose "Little Sweden" like they have with "Little
Mexico," "Little Havana," and "Little Saigon." New Sweden's population never went
higher than 104 souls according to the Handbook of Texas.
It lost its
post office in 1902 when they started receiving their mail through Manor.
Even the sign in front of the church
lists the church's
address as Manor. Later, school consolidation helped hasten New Sweden's demise
as a distinct community.
The Church is quite striking with its unusually
steep steeple, and it is certainly worth the short drive north from Manor,
or even the drive south from Taylor.
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Driving Directions
to
"The
Most Photographed Church in Texas":
From
Austin: Take highway 290 East
for until you come to FM-973. Turn left (watching traffic) and drive 4 and 8/10ths
to New Sweden Church Road. Here you’ll see the cemetery and a historical marker.
(This was the site of the first church.) Turn right and follow the road for the
remaining 2 miles. Just keep the steeple in sight. At 104 feet tall, it’s easy
to do.
From Elgin: Take
highway 290 W and turn right onto FM1100. After 5 miles, turn left onto Manda
Road and drive for about a mile until you see Manda Carlson Road. Turn right and
drive 6 /10ths of a mile to New Sweden Church Road and drive the remaining mile
and one tenth. Don’t forget to take a photo. |
The rolling
terrain allows one to see for miles in any direction and the cattle and tilled
fields make it easy to imagine what life was like here. Don't let the openness
fool you. Without a good county map, you can still get lost.
Nearby -
about two miles East, you'll find the Kimbro Cemetery
- all that's now left of that Swedish community. |
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Kimbro Cemetery with a distant view of the New Sweden church
TE Photo, 2000
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fields near New Sweden
TE Photo |
New Sweden
Texas Forum
Subject: New Sweden Church
A co-worker of mine was unfamiliar with the New Sweden church and this article
described and illustrated it very nicely. About the Readers Comments additions
at the bottom of the page, a reader described the Manda
school building near Kimbro, an old 2 room school. My father also attended
classes there as a boy. I think it was used in a movie in the 1980’s, the Robert
Redford, Waldo Pepper, or something like that. Very nice website, really enjoyed
it. - Mark Thompson, January 13, 2006
...
As my name suggests I have some German background. My dad came to the US with
his family in 1956 from Hamburg, Germany. The first town in America they lived
in was New Sweden. They attended the New Sweden Lutheran Church, which we visited
again a few years ago. This is where my dad and his family got used to living
in America. My grandparents are buried at the Kimbro Cemetery, my grandmother
died in 1965 and my grandfather in 1983.
Did you ever see the "Manda"
school building? This is a little 2 room school house which was used for students
in New Sweden. My dad attended class at this school. It's in ruins sadly now,
when we went back to New Sweden we went inside and walked around the building.
That was a unique experience to see where my dad went to school for the first
time ever in America. I'm enjoying your web site! - Kevin Lehnhardt, Austin,
Texas. January 08, 2002 00 |
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