mith shop, a
school-house, two smaller churches, one Methodist and one Baptist, and
several other public and private buildings, and a few miles farther
north, near the Cannon river, are two railroads, running from the
Mississippi westward, connecting with other roads which span the
continent, and only terminate on the shores of the Pacific ocean.

All around, so far as the eye can see, are green fields, grazing herds
of cattle, planted and natural groves, comfortable buildings, and great
white-painted school-houses. Not a hill, not a valley or a grove but
they call forth touching recollections, some mingled with sorrow and
pain, but by far the most bright and cheerful; for here I spent the
first hopeful years of my manhood; here we lived, the first Swedes in
Minnesota, in a circle of innocent and faithful friends; here I won the
wife who tenderly and faithfully has shared the vicissitudes of life
with me, in sorrow and in joy ever the same; here those of my countrymen
who followed me when I was yet but a youth, have acquired independence,
happiness, and such esteem that the settlement of Vasa has a reputation
among the communities of the state which reflects honor upon the memory
of the great king whose name it bears.

But this picture of development, culture and progress is not confined to
this settlement, for countless other Scandinavian settlements in the
west and northwest have made as great progress within a comparatively
short time.

On my arrival in 1852 the Mississippi river was the north-western
boundary line of civilization with the exception of the state of Iowa,
which then had only a small population. Since that time twelve new
states further west have been peopled and admitted into the Union. There
was no railroad west of Chicago; now the immense distance between the
Mississippi and the Pacific ocean is spanned by four giant railroads,
while more than a hundred trunk and branch lines intersect the country
in all directions, and lakes and rivers are navigated by hundreds of
steamers, which compete with the railroads in carrying the products of
the West to the Atlantic, whence they are distributed over the whole
civilized world.

Hundreds of cities that did not exist, even by name, have since sprung
up as if by magic, and some of them have already become renowned
throughout the world for their industry, commerce and culture. Among
them are Minneapolis and St. Paul, already intertwining their arms
around