AMERICANS ALL

yesterday.1 I was talking with living "prairie May-
flower " pioneers; Judge Holt was now telling of how his
own mother had picked wild berries and walked four-
teen miles to sell them, of how the log-cabin windows
had to be cut small so that hungry bears could not get

1 On the Atlantic seaboard the Scandinavians settled mostly in
New York, Delaware, and New England. While the picture in the
East remains somewhat the same, the pattern behind it is con-
siderably different. Here Scandinavian immigration began two
centuries earlier, in colonial days; included mature, well-equipped
adventurers, explorers, statesmen, intellectuals, leaders. During the
reign of the child Queen Christina, in the year 1637, two ships
came loaded with Swedish colonists, sponsored by Christina's
famous Prime Minister, Oxenstierna. As the Dutch controlled the
east bank of the Delaware river, the Swedes took the west bank as
far up as Trenton Falls. A fort was built where Wilmington now
is, and named Christina. Before 1642 Peter Minuit, Dutch head
of the New Amsterdam Colony, had been succeeded by a Swedish
governor. More Swedes came and settled on land, which included
a great part of the present Chester and the city of Philadelphia.
The famous John Morton, who cast the deciding vote for the
Declaration of Independence, was a pure Swede, born in America,
descendant of those colonists, and his real name was Maarten
Martenssen. The vote of the Thirteen Colonies was tied, six to
six. He was ill in Philadelphia, got out of bed to cast the vote
which made America what she is to-day and earn the name of
"Keystone State" for Pennsylvania. One of the " believe-it-or-
not" wheezes of history is that " George Washington was not the
first President of the United States." A Swede named John Hanson
was elected to Congress in 1779, and elected President in 1781 by
Congress assembled. He was really President of Congress, of
course, but was the only " President" the newly born United States
then had. George Washington came later, and was the first
President elected by the people. John Ericsson, a Swede living in
New York, invented the Monitors revolving turret, the " cheese-
box on a raft" that battled with the ironclad Merrimac. He after-
wards perfected the screw propeller. More recently Jacob Riis was
a Dane, and the late Knute Rockne, of course, a son of Norway.
The list of famous dead Scandinavian Americans, including
Magnus Johnson, who died only a couple of years ago, is an
integral part of American history.

lie State of Delaware enthusiastically spends a quarter of a
million dollars for the Tercentenary of the landing of the first
Swedish colonists. A magnificent park is laid out on the site of
Fort Christina.

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