New Sweden

In March 1870, Maine Governor Joshua Chamberlain appointed former consul William Widgery Thomas Jr. as Commissioner of Immigration to recruit settlers directly from Sweden, following legislation aimed at countering population loss and settling state timberlands along the Canadian border. Believing northern Aroostook County mirrored Scandinavia in climate and woodland conditions, Thomas advocated for the fertile soil of Township 15, Range 3. Advance surveyor Albert A. Burleigh prepared 100-acre lots, cleared land, and built six initial log houses to prepare for an incentive package that also offered seed stock and provisions. On July 23, 1870, Thomas guided 51 colonists—22 men, 11 women, and 18 children, including Nils Olsson and his family on Lot 115—into the wilderness, officially naming the settlement New Sweden. Thomas lived among them in his own log cabin for the first years as 'Father Thomas' beside his 'children in the woods,' while fluent English-speaker Nicholas P. Clase managed storehouse accounts and served as the first postmaster.

That first autumn, the settlers erected the Capitolium to serve as a school, immigrant reception center, church, store, and town hall. Formal Lutheran traditions quickly took root with the organization of the Gustaf Adolph Evangelical Lutheran Church in 1871, which dedicated its building on Capitol Hill Road in 1880 and now stands listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The colony grew steadily, expanding into neighboring Westmanland in 1879 and Stockholm in 1881. Community milestones followed, including an 1895 Quarter Centennial gathering of thousands addressed by Thomas in a maple grove, and the dedication of a 1926 stone founders monument at the historic crossroads.

Today, exploring New Sweden in Aroostook County reveals this preserved heritage through careful local stewardship. The New Sweden Historical Society, founded in the 1920s, operates a replica of the Capitolium built in 1974 after a 1971 fire, preserving the original saved front doors along with pioneer trunks, spinning wheels, agricultural tools, and weaving looms. Next door on Capitol Hill stands the restored Lindsten Stuga log cabin, joined nearby by the Capitol School Museum, a one-room schoolhouse operating until 1950. Along Station Road, the Larsson-Noak Historic District features the Lars Noaksson blacksmith and woodworking shop alongside the circa 1871 Larsson-Ostlund home, the only intact full two-story log dwelling from the settlement era in Maine. Heritage also thrives outdoors in W.W. Thomas Park with its music shell and picnic grounds, and during the annual Midsommar festival in late June with smorgasbords, traditional music, and maypole dancing decorated with local wildflowers.