THE LOCATION OF THE ARCHIVES

The Board selected Bishop Hill, Illinois as the site for the building. Many factors contributed to the selection. It was a Swedish community with widespread influence on Swedish immigration. It is almost geographically centered in the United States, and easily reached from all directions. The rural setting offers more stability than the urban migratory mode of life. Bishop Hill is a National and Illinois State Historic Site. The State owns several of the historic buildings, adding to the permanence of the community and contributing economically to the restoration of daily activity.

This remarkable village was founded by immigrants from Sweden in1846, exactly 50 years before our Order was founded. A religious dissident named Erik Jansson established the settlement based on Biblical principles. Jansson’s followers erected twenty communal buildings and the community ultimately owned 15,000 fertile acres, becoming an important industrial and farming village. After the death of Jansson, the community was dissolved and the land and property divided. Without strong leadership the village went to sleep for a hundred years, and thus remained unchanged until the 1960’s. Many of the buildings from the colony period still stand and some are occupied by direct descendant of the colonists. It is the most valuable monument to Swedish immigration that exists anywhere. The whole area for miles around is Swedish oriented.