Gustaf Unonius, New Upsala, and the Scandinavian Parish

Gustaf Unonius, New Upsala, and the Scandinavian Parish. . , In the spring of 1841, Gustaf Unonius, his wife Charlotta, and several companions set out from Upsala, Sweden, for what was then the northwest frontier of the United States. Inspired by Swedish Romanticism, Gustaf pursued the dream of a life in a “cottage in the primeval forests” with Charlotta. On arrival in Wisconsin in the fall of 1841, the couple claimed land and built a cabin on the eastern shore of Pine Lake, the ancestral home of the Menominee and Ho-Chunk peoples and, from the 17th century, the Potawatomi. The letters Gustaf wrote about life in Wisconsin territory to Swedish newspapers in 1842 sparked the first wave of Scandinavian immigration. His memoir, A Pioneer in Northwest America, tells many vivid stories of life in Wisconsin as it was becoming a state. In 1842, after more Swedish families arrived in the Pine Lake area, this first Swedish settlement in Wisconsin was called New Upsala. Severe winters, disease, and crop failures made life difficult for the settlers. Discouraged with farming and encouraged by fellow settlers who wanted spiritual leadership, Gustaf enrolled at nearby Nashotah House, an Episcopal seminary, and became its first graduate. The year after the Scandinavian Parish at Pine Lake was formed in 1844, Gustaf Unonius became its first pastor. He ministered to families as far away as Lake Koshkonong in Jefferson County, including the family of Thure Kumlien, a Swedish settler and notable ornithologist. The parish evolved into Holy Innocents Church, Nashotah, which in 1968 merged with Grace Church, Hartland, creating a new church named Grace Holy Innocents Church. The church was renamed St. Anskar’s Episcopal Church in 1975. The original cemetery, Holy Innocents Cemetery, is located west of Pine Lake.