SWANBECK, JOHN W. (REV.)

SWANBECK, SWANSON, SEABERG

Posted By: Jean Kramer (email)
Date: 7/18/2003 at 22:47:29

Biography reproduced from page 374 of Volume II of the History of Kossuth County written by Benjamin F. Reed and published in 1913:

Rev. John W. Swanbeck is the well known and highly esteemed pastor of the Swedish Lutheran church of Swea township and also the pastor of the Swedish Lutheran church of Swea City, Iowa. He was born in the parish of Larf, in the province of Vestergotland, Sweden, December 20, 1862, and is a son of Swan Moss and Igna (Swanson) Swanbeck, both of whom were natives of Sweden. The father was by occupation a farmer and with his wife emigrated to America in 1886, settling first in Minneapolis and later removing to a farm located in Dunn county, Wisconsin, where he continued to live until the time of his death, which occurred June 15, 1900. The mother is still living and resides on the home farm in Dunn county, Wisconsin.

Rev. John W. Swanbeck was reared at home and after receiving his elementary education in the public schools of his native land pursued the required course of studies in the University of Skara and at Jonkoping, Sweden, and was graduated from that institution with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. In 1887 he emigrated to America and went direct to St. Peter, Minnesota, where he accepted the chair of Greek letters in the Gustavus Adolphus College, and as professor in that institution remained for three years. He later took his degree of Bachelor of Divinity from the Augustana College of Rock Island, Illinois, and in 1898 he received his degree of Master of Arts from the Western Reserve University at Cleveland, Ohio. At that place he accepted his first pastorate in America and while there pursued a post-graduate course at the Western Reserve University until 1899 and then accepted the pastorate of the Gustavus Adolphus church in Chicago, where he remained for eight years, during which time he took a course of study in the University of Chicago. In 1908 he removed to Kossuth county, Iowa, and at that time entered upon his pastorate of the Swea township Swedish Lutheran church and also of the Swedish Lutheran church of Swea City, in which pastorates he has since continued to remain and has been very successful in his work as preacher and pastor. He is a member of the Iowa state conference of Swedish Lutheran church and is now serving his second year as a member of the board of directors of the Swedish Lutheran Hospital at Des Moines, Iowa. Zion Swedish Evangelical Lutheran church, of Swea township was organized September 17, 1875, and the charter members were Carl Anderson, Andels Anderson Hale, Carl Larson, Olof Moline, Gustave Anderson, Andres Erickson, A. Erickson, C. Anderson, A. Anderson, A. Bengtson, A. Moline, Per Munson, Mathias Olson and G. Martin. Rev. Halland, an old Iowa minister, was chairman of the meeting and John Aurelius was secretary. All of this number are dead except Mr. A. Moline. The first services of the church were held in the old Immigrant Company house and the first pastor of the church was Rev. S. G. Lilgegren.

Rev. Swanbeck was united in marriage on June 6, 1891, to Miss Amelia Seaberg, a daughter of Carl and Louisa Matilda Seaberg, both of whom were natives of Sweden and who emigrated to America with their parents when they were young children. The father was by occupation an organ manufacturer and was for many years a resident of Rock Island, Illinois, where he passed away. The mother is still living in their old home in that city. To Rev. and Mrs. Swanbeck seven children have been born, namely: Carl Emil, twenty years of age, now a student at Augustana College at Rock Island, Illinois; Edith Victoria, aged seventeen years also attending that college; Conrad Rudolph, thirteen years of age, who graduated from school district No. 1, of Swea township, on the 9th of April, 1912 and is now attending school at Rock Island; Segina Lydia, who at the age of ten years is a pupil of district school No. 1; Louise Mirian, who passed away at the age of eighteen months; John Gotfried, aged four years; and Pauline Naomi, one year old.

Rev. Swanbeck is a member of the progressive party and one of the most useful and well known clergymen of the Swedish Lutheran church in Iowa. He is a man who has spent all of the working years in his life as a divinity student and his attainments as a scholar place him well to the front in the ranks of his chosen vocation. As a pastor, he has been uniformly successful in all of the churches, which have honored him with a call to their pastorate. His ability as a preacher and his unusual educational acquirements have given him a place of distinction not only in the denomination, of which he is an authorized minister, but also among the entire Protestant body of the central west, and he is justly entitled to be numbered among the most influential and strong moral forces of his adopted state.