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WEST
SWEDEN, TEXAS
Texas Ghost Town
McCulloch County, Texas Hill Country
7 Miles NW of Brady
(Directions below)
Population: Unknown
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History in
a Pecan Shell
In 1905 a flock of Swedish immigrants transmigrated from their farms
in Travis and Williamson County, led by their pastor Ernest Severin.
The town's name carried on a tradition (after New
Sweden in Travis County and nearby East
Sweden, Texas) but the town never prospered and it is believed
the residents returned to their previous homes. The community remained
on highway maps in 1948 but by the 1980s it was just a memory.
A letter to Texas Escapes from former resident Jim Johnson includes
this information (as well as detailed directions to the former town):
"West Sweden is almost entirely gone. About 7 miles west of Brady
on US 87, north of the highway at the T intersection of 2 gravel roads
there is sign on the highway pointing to the cemetery and it is grown
over pretty bad unless somebody has done something.
I remember only the Methodist Church and the school. The school was
vacant as the students [were transfered] to Brady.
(My memory goes back to the last year or so of WW II.) The church
burned down pre-1950. There probably was a store but I don't know
anything about it."
"Just for [additional] information; the town of Melvin also had a
lot of Swedish settlers. In the 1940's it was probably one third Swedish,
one third of other Europeans and one third Hispanic. We went to the
Swedish Evangelical Free Church and the older Sunday School classes
were conducted in the Swedish language. Several would still pray in
Swedish during the services." - Jim Johnson, Bridgeport, Texas
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