Bishop Hill Reframed

 BISHOP HILL REFRAMED: VOICES FROM THE PAST

As we celebrate the 175th anniversary of the founding of the Bishop Hill Colony, we are proud to present this new book that sheds light on why a large group of Swedish immigrants decided to pool their resources and leave their native country to found a new settlement in Henry County, Illinois. They worked hard for their common good, but like most religious colonies, the Bishop Hill Colony was short-lived. Its sons and daughters became successful farmers of the land that the colony had owned or elsewhere in the American Midwest.

Todd DeDecker, Bishop Hill Heritage Association

Author-editor-translator: Lilly Setterdahl

Design: Stephan Setterdahl

Publisher: Bishop Hill Heritage Association, Bishop Hill, IL

www.amazon.com/Lilly-Setterdahl/eB001K8FWG

Bishop Hill Reframed presents an honest description of the Bishop Hill Colony. It begins with a look at

the principal founder, his beliefs, and escape from Sweden’s unfree society in the 1840s. It continues

with letters penned by colonists and other eyewitnesses, articles on specific subjects, conversations

with descendants, Civil War letters, and a Roster of Officers and Men of Company D, 57th Illinois

Volunteer Infantry, 1861-1865. The book’s cover shows the primitive housing in 1846 and the

prosperous town in 1855, both scenes painted by the colony’s own artist Olof Krans.

The colonists’ willingness to work side by side to create a town in the wilderness—despite the cholera

epidemic and the murder of “the prophet” in 1850—continued unabated until disputes about dogma led

to dissension. Hard economic times and other problems made it necessary to sell large tracts of land to

satisfy the lenders, resulting in the dissolution of the colony in 1860-61. The book is illustrated with

photographs from Sweden and Bishop Hill, the historic buildings in the village, past activities, and

images of the stoic pioneers, men, and women, who built this town.