Friends of the Karl Oskar House

Digital subscribers will now receive each newsletter in two formats:

• PDF: Optimized for printing
• HTML: Web-accessible format

The HTML version supports Web Content Accessibility Guidelines for users with disabilities or low vision. New accessibility features include:

• Screen reader compatibility
• Text-to-speech software compatibility
• Interactive accessibility menu (click "Accessibility" button in top-right corner)
• Multiple text sizing options: Normal, Large, and Larger
• Increased spacing option
• Clickable images that open in enlarged view with captions

To access these features, download the .html file to your computer and open it with a web browser like Google Chrome. If you try to view it directly in your email, it will not work.

We hope you enjoy these new features. Questions? Contact co-editor Peter Grund.

As winter settles in—I'm writing this with a forecast of 4–8 inches of snow for the Chisago Lakes area—we're delighted to invite you to one of our most cherished traditions: the Friends of the Karl Oskar House God Jul Party and potluck.

This year, we'll gather on December 8 at 11:30 in our cozy Verkstad (work shed), warmed by the wood-burning stove. Last year I remember the inside temperature getting into the high 40s, so dress warmly. It's a perfect setting for good food, good company, and a shared appreciation of our heritage. It's always a joy to see the space fill with laughter, stories, and favorite family dishes—those simple, heartfelt moments that keep us strong and connected.

The legend of the Tomte reminds us of this same spirit of resilience and community. Deeply tied to the natural world, the Tomte symbolizes the steady rhythm of the forest and the enduring strength found in caring for one another. Even in the harshest winters, these loyal guardians remain steadfast in their duty to protect and nurture.

Thank you for supporting the Karl Oskar House and helping us keep these traditions alive. I look forward to celebrating God Jul with all of you.

Hej, my name is Peter Grund and I am excited to help Sven with the formatting and digital design of the newsletter for the Karl Oskar House. I was born in Duluth in 2000 and my family moved to Chisago County in 2004. My father's side is Scandinavian (both Swedish and Norwegian). I've lived in Minneapolis since 2018 while I attended the University of Minnesota, where I met my wife. We married this past July, and she's now in her fourth year of a clinical psychology PhD program. I work as a data analyst for the State of Minnesota.

My interest in Swedish heritage began in early 2020 when I had planned to attend a folkhögskola to take a "Swedish as a Second Language" course over the summer break between semesters. The COVID pandemic cancelled those plans so I turned to genealogy/family history. I knew my family was Swedish but little else. Through census records I traced my family back to Torsby kommun, Värmland.

At that time, I was still in college and didn't have capacity to volunteer, but now with more free time, I want to get involved in this community. I believe there's a real need to engage younger people.

In January 2023, we applied for a grant through the East Central Regional Arts Council to (1) support the summer music program, (2) purchase new chairs for the Verkstad, (3) build a kiosk explaining the history of the Karl Oskar House, and (4) hire an artist to create a mural of the Karl Oskar and Kristina family on the Verkstad's exterior wall. Many volunteers contributed to the development of the kiosk content, the art selection process, and the installation.

The East Central Regional Arts Council connected us with Twin Cities artist Lilli Lennox, whom we commissioned to portray the family, their environment, and the hardships of emigrant life. A subcommittee worked for months to select a design that would tell the story. One early comment on a draft noted that Kristina looked too happy—"like she won the lottery." The final design, we believe, captures both the difficulty of the times and the family's commitment to their future.

The mural has received an overwhelmingly positive response. Thank you to the East Central Regional Arts Council for supporting this project.

Magnus Jonasson Linnell and the Tipping Point

In the early 1850s, the Chisago Lakes region of Minnesota became a magnet for Swedish immigration from Småland, a mostly rural area of southern Sweden that had been hard hit by overpopulation, hunger and economic strife. These immigrants came for many reasons, but mostly for the inexpensive and fertile land and the free lifestyle promised by the less populated states of the west.

In The Emigrants, the first of Vilhelm Moberg's fictional novels of Swedish emigration from Småland, he writes:

Although the names Karl Oskar and Christina Nilsson are wholly a creation of Moberg's imagination and the events of their journey to Chisago County are a composite of many different immigrant experiences, Moberg's story is in fact very real. Those events in those times really happened. They just happened to many Swedes over many journeys to their new homes in Minnesota.

The First Småland Immigrant to Chisago Lakes

In the summer of 1852, several Swedish families lived around the Chisago Lakes, but none of them were from Småland. The first Swede to immigrate from Småland was Magnus Jonasson^[1]. In America, his children took the surname Linnell, but there is no record of Magnus adopting that surname. Magnus was referred to as Magnus Jonson.

Magnus was intent on creating a Swedish colony in America and anticipated that his persuasive nature would entice many of his friends and relatives in Sweden to follow him. And indeed that was true. However it took more than just a persuasive personality to draw those many thousand of Kronoberg Swedes to Chisago Lake. For these people to leave Sweden required a rapid spread of news from the New World and almost instantaneous sociological change. And it took more than just a few letters of encouragement from the first emigrant.

In his book The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell defines three kinds of people that enable a dramatic social phenomenon such as this one to happen: a Salesman, a persuader or charismatic person with powerful negotiating skills; a Maven, a person who accumulates knowledge; and a Connector, someone who knows a large numbers of people and who makes introductions.

Gladwell would recognize Magnus as a Salesman. And Magnus appears to be just that when he wrote back to Sweden to attract so many others from parishes in and surrounding his home parish of Furuby to come join him in his new home at Chisago Lake. But two others individuals also contributed to this tipping point phenomenon, his brother Johan Jonasson and his childhood friend Maria Petersdotter.

References

1. Moberg, Vilhelm, The Emigrants: A Novel. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1951. Print.