Rockford Swedes

https://www.amazon.com/Lilly-Setterdahl/e/B001K8FWDGRockford Swedes: American Stories with coauthor Niel M. Johnson was first published in 1993 and quickly sold out. Now, 23 years later I decided to publish it as a revised e-book with a new color cover.  The Swedish Historical Society in Rockford provided me with a photo of the Erlander Home, which functions as an archives and museum. John Erlander was a Swedish-born industrialist and successful furniture manufacturer.

 Twenty-five Swedish Americans are featured in this book, 15 immigrants, and 10 children of immigrants. They worked in various occupations, but several talk about Rockford's prominent furniture industry, which was started by Swedish immigrants.

One person says that his father lost “a million and a half” in the Great Depression. While most seem to have had a happy family life, one woman describes her father as abusive. We learn about the “socialist Sunday school” that some children attended, and about the Swedish participation in city government.   Since the first edition was published, these voices have been silenced by death. Fortunately, thanks to the preserved recordings, they can still be heard on tapes at two archives, one in the United States and one in Sweden. This volume also contains images of the storytellers and a complete guide to the more than 300 interviews that Lennart Setterdahl conducted with Rockford Swedes from 1985 until 1992. See guide at the end of the book. 

The story that brought tears to my eyes was about how one childless couple got to adopt a child. She was found "in a little basket under a tree on Park Avenue... under a quilt covered with dew." 

The book can be downloaded to any device from amazon.com. Price $5.99. 

Rockford Swedes: American Stories