Stockholm on the Rio Grande: A Swedish Farming Colony on the Mesquite Frontier of Southernmost Texas (1912-1985)

by David E. Vassberg

Overview

Stockholm, Texas, was an early twentieth century Swedish colony in the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas. The topic provides a fascinating micro-history of culture contacts, acculturation, and economic development in a frontier setting. The Swedish colony represented an island of Scandinavian culture in a predominately Hispanic area that was in the process of colonization by Anglo-Americans from the north. The story of Stockholm, Texas, is a case history of the impact on a small rural community of the mechanization and commercialization of American agriculture.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780761825357
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	04/21/2003
Series:	Swedish Farming Colony on the Mesquite Frontier of Southernm
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	268
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.57(d)

About the Author

David E. Vassberg is Emeritus Professor of History, University of Texas-Pan American.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 List of Illustrations
Chapter 2 Preface
Chapter 3 Background: Introduction; Swedish Migration to America; Crossing the Atlantic; Earlier Swedish Immigration to Texas; Notes
Chapter 4 Creating a Swedish Colony on the Mesquite Frontier: The Historical Setting; Founding the Turner Tract Colony; Developing the Stockholm Area; Motives for Moving to South Texas; Notes
Chapter 5 Church and School: The Religious Heritage in Sweden and America; Religion in the Turner Tract: Unity and Schism; Stockholm's Mission Church; The Stockholm School; Special Celebrations, Holidays, and Picnics; Secession of the Swedish Methodists and L
Chapter 6 Adapting to a New Land: Language Use in the Swedish Colony; Floods, Hurricanes, and Other Natural Disasters; Mexican Bandits; The Stockholm Cemetery; Notes
Chapter 7 Loss of Identity, and Disintegration: Waning Swedishness; Epitaph for a Town that Never Was; Conclusion; Notes
Chapter 8 Swedes of the Local Colony: Swedish Names in Family History; Directory of Residents, Visitors, and Landowners; Notes
Chapter 9 Annotated List of Sources
Chapter 10 Author Biographical Sketch
Chapter 11 Index