Swedes in Globeville

Most Swedes immigrating to America arrived in the period after the Civil War and settled in the Great Lakes states and the northern Great Plains particularly in Minnesota, Michigan, Illinois and Wisconsin. Unlike the eastern European newcomers, Swedes were not fleeing religious persecution but were attracted by the farmland available under the Homestead Act of 1862. Swedes were also lured to the west by the Colorado gold rush, and found jobs in mines and smelters in Black Hawk, Central City, Pueblo, Leadville, Cripple Creek, Aspen and Ouray.
When Colorado's first successful smelter, the Boston and Colorado, built a plant north of Denver in 1878, the company employed Scots, Welsh, Germans, Irish, English and a large number of Swedes. In the company town of Argo, Inca Street was referred to as Smaland Avenue because so many residents came from that region of Sweden. Swedes also found jobs in the Omaha and Grant, and Globe Smelters, railroads, brickyards, foundries and meat packing plants in Globeville.
Swedes formed numerous self-help societies like the Skandia Benevolent Order in 1876, as well as social groups like the Republican Club, the Swedish-American Silver Club, a Scandinavian-gymnastic club, music society, theatrical troupe, hospital organization, publishing company, and Swedish versions of the Red Men, Knights of Pythias, Odd Fellows, and American Foresters. There were seven Swedish-language newspapers in Colorado between 1882 and 1944 with Svenska Korrespondenten (published from 1889 to 1901) being the most widely read with branch offices in Pueblo, Leadville and Cripple Creek.
The Swedish Lutheran or the Union Swedish Church in nearby Argo provided a spiritual home within walking distance of Globeville; the Bethany Swedish Evangelical Lutheran Church (at 32nd and Gilpin Street), the First Swedish Methodist Episcopal (in 1890, located at 1924 Pennsylvania), or Swedish Lutheran Church at 23rd and Court Place also held services for Swedes.
Although Swedes were never numerous enough to have a church or lodge building in Globeville, their culture added a distinctive flavor to the neighborhood.

Bethany Swedish Evangelical Lutheran Church at 32nd and Gilpin Street

Swedish Lutheran Confirmation Class about 1914 

Swedish workers from the brickyards