The Red Oak Grove & The Edwards River
Introduction
Text-to-speech Audio
Olof Olson was sent ahead to scout land. In New York, Olson met a Swedish Methodist minister, a Reverend Olof Hedstrom who told him his brother Jonas had just established the first Swedish Methodist Church in the wilderness of Illinois. Olof Olson travelled here and liked what he saw. He initially purchased 60 acres of Red Oak timber here along the Edwards River. The timber meant building material and the river meant year round water. Eventually the Bishop Hill Colony owned more 14,000 acres.
Images
The Edwards River flows in the distance. The river was named fro our territorial governor and empties into the Mississippi at New Boston.
Sources
Official Walking Tour Bishop Hill Illinois Guidebook to Buildings, 2010.
Wheat Flour Messiah, Eric Jansson of Bishop Hill by Paul Elmen Southern Illinois University Press 1997
History of Bishop Hill, A Story of Swedish Pioneers Collected and Compiled by Theo J. Anderson, self-published.
Image Sources(Click to expand)
Brian "Fox" Ellis