History on the Lincoln County Fairgrounds
For more than 60 years, the Swenson log cabin has been a part of the Lincoln County FairBy Jodelle Greiner
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TYLER - It's not pretty, but there's a lot of history in that old log cabin on the Lincoln County Fairgrounds.
The rough-cut logs don't meet in a lot of places and the original sod roof has been replaced with shingles, but it predates Lincoln County and gives people a glimpse of the past.
"It's a history for people," said Bernie Aronson, who lives in Ivanhoe and is a member of Farm Bureau. "A lot of young people come through here and get to see what the old-time life looked like."
It's now the fair booth for the Farm Bureau, but the log cabin was built by Jonas Swenson in 1873, said Aronson.
The cabin was originally part of Swenson's homestead claim in Section 22 of Royal Township, along the southern border of Swenson Lake, which has since been drained, Aronson said.
Swenson was the first settler in Royal Township and the cabin was the first house built there, Aronson said. They think Swenson had help building it from another early settler, John Nilsson, who also came to Royal Township in 1873.
"It would take more than one man," Aronson said, because the oak logs are so hard that you still can't drive a nail into them. When the Farm Bureau attaches its sign each year, they have to look for the holes from the last time, Aronson said. The cabin was originally built without nails, just wooden pegs to hold it together. Swenson would have had to use a hand tool to start the holes, Aronson said, and it would have taken a lot of labor and time.
After the cabin was finished, Swenson's wife and three sons lived in it with him.
"Kind of small for five people," said Aronson, who figures the cabin is about 24-by-24 feet. "Most people's bedrooms are bigger than that."
Yet the Swenson family lived in the cabin for eight years, "before the new house was built," Aronson said.
Swenson not only left the house behind, he also wrote letters back home to Sweden, that were found in a trunk by a college professor whose specialty was the history of immigration to America, Aronson said. The letters, which Swenson wrote in Swedish, had to be translated and are on display with the cabin. In the letters, Swenson talks about his family, crops, including how measurements differed - explaining such things as the difference between an American mile and the Swedish equivalent - and a bit of history. Swenson told his family about "having a new county" Aronson said, when Lyon County was split to create Lyon and Lincoln counties in 1873. "Jonas was there a little before the split," Aronson said.
They have also found letters sent to Swenson from Sweden, which are being translated.
"Hopefully, we will have them at the fair next year," Aronson said.
After the Swensons moved into the new house, the cabin was used for storage until Highway 75 was designed to go right through it.
"It had to be torn down or moved," Aronson said.
Swenson, who died in 1900, has 65 living descendants - although none with the Swenson name.
"The family donated it to the Lincoln County Fair to preserve it," Aronson said. It was moved to Tyler in 1941.
"It was taken apart log by log, numbered, then put back together again," Aronson said. "Originally, it sat on the ground and the logs were deteriorating, and it's lost a couple of logs on the bottom, that's why the door is so short. The fair board raised it and put railroad timbers under it.
"Been used for the last 20 years as the (Farm Bureau's) fair booth," Aronson said.
"We were the only county to have a log cabin for a fair booth," Aronson said. "Now, there are three others, but they're new, not historic buildings."
