A typical day ran from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Mornings opened with a hymn or two, then a chapter from the New Testament. Older pupils would read aloud a verse each. Next each class had a five- or ten-minute period twice or more per day with the teacher listening as students recited from memory. On hot summer afternoons, teachers sometimes moved school outside under the shade of a large elm near the schoolhouse.

The Teachers. Most Swedish school teachers were members of the local congregation. Many were experienced public school teachers during the winter. Some were college students from Gustavus Adolphus sent out to teach summer terms. Johnson remembered one Gustavus student, a young woman who had studied music there, as one of his best teachers. She could play the old reed organ, and the children learned songs from the Söndagsskolbok.

Two years after his own confirmation, Johnson’s pastor surprised him by asking him to teach. Among his thirty pupils were his two younger brothers and a seven-year-old sister. They caused him no trouble, he wrote, “probably for fear of being reported at home.” A few days after the term ended, a check for $35.00 arrived from the church treasurer.

The Schools Fade. In 1910, 151 Minnesota Conference congregations ran weekday schools enrolling 6,195 pupils. By 1920, only 88 congregations still had schools, with 3,056 pupils. At Chisago Lake, the shift to English started in 1914 when one boy was confirmed in English for the first time. Within ten years, Swedish had all but disappeared from the schools.

Conference minutes trace the arc. In 1883: “The congregations more and more are aware of the importance of the parish school.” But by 1914: “Schools for Christian instruction seem to be losing the support and encouragement that they need.” And in 1921: “The interest in these schools was weakening more and more, and had disappeared in many congregations.”

The 1922 publication of a bilingual Swedish-English catechism, printed in a single run of 2,000 copies, marked the end. After nearly seventy years, the summer Swedish schools gave way to a new generation and a changed church.