|
|
NEW SWEDEN,
TEXASTravis County,
Texas Hill Country
FM 973, East of Austin
5 miles NE of Manor
Book
Your Hotel Here & Save
Austin
Hotels
|
|
|
New
Sweden Lutheran Church
Photo courtesy Barclay Gibson |
History
in a Pecan Shell
New
Sweden dates from 1876 when the community of Knight's Ranch took its
name from the New Sweden 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. |
|
|
New
Sweden Lutheran Church organ keyboard
Photo courtesy Justin Parson |
|
|
The
Church at dawn
Photo courtesy Barclay Gibson |
| 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.
|
|
|
A
closer view
TE Photo, 2001 |
| 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. |
|
|
Cotton
fields near New Sweden
TE Photo |
|
|
Kimbro Cemetery with a distant view of the New Sweden church
Photo by John Troesser, 2000 |
Nearby
- about two miles East, you'll find the Kimbro
Cemetery - all that's now left of that Swedish community.
©
John Troesser |
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 |
Anyone
wishing to share memories or photos of New Sweden, Texas, please contact
us.
Book
Your Hotel Here & Save
Austin
Hotels
More
Hotels
|
DVD
New Sweden
Texas - movie location for The Great Waldo Pepper |
|
|
|
