Jefferson County Online The Swedish Community of Jefferson County, Iowa

  In the spring of 1977, the New Sweden Chapel was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in recognition of the New Sweden community being the first lasting Swedish immigrant settlement and the Chapel having been a shrine of the Augustana Synod. Every year on the first Sunday in June the First Augustana Church in Lockridge holds its regular Sunday morning service in the old Chapel. The Swedesburg Lutheran congregation also holds a yearly service in the Chapel. It is opened for visitors who wish to see it.

   The Lockridge congregation is not financially able to preserve and maintain the building without help. A New Sweden Chapel Committee works to raise the money and has received generous donations for both the Chapel and the cemetery funds from many individuals and the Swedesburg congregation. Some day the Committee hopes to have enough money to repair and restore the original wooden pipes and pedal board (which have been stored for so many years) to the little pipe organ so it will once again be in its original condition. Some organists who have examined it think it could be unique in the United States.

   Contributions for the preservation and restoration of the New Sweden Chapel and maintenance of its cemetery will be gratefully received by members of the New Sweden Chapel Committee or they may be mailed to: