Date: 1918

 

Description: One of the biggest challenges for immigrants coming to the United States was learning to grasp the English language, and Sioux City is no exception. Groups with common heritage and language often formed close-knit communities within the city. This paper, the Svenska Monitoren (Swedish Monitor), was published by the community of Swedish immigrants that came to Sioux City in the later 19th and early 20th centuries. First published in 1915 by O. E. Jacobson, it was the last and most successful of a long line of Swedish newspapers published in the Sioux City Swedish community.

 

As the Monitor was printed in Swedish, it mainly circulated only in the Swedish community, who lived primarily along Court Street from 6th to about 29th Street. The first Swede that came to Sioux City was Nels Olson-Stenbeck in 1867. Throughout the late 19th century more and more Swedes came to Sioux City looking for jobs and nearby farmland. Swedish churches popped up as settlement increased, including the Swedish Lutheran Augustana Church, which later expanded into Immanuel Lutheran, now on Hamilton Boulevard. Swedes also founded a number of clubs in Sioux City, including the Fridhem Society, the Vasa Lodge, and even a Swedish Glee Club. Many Sioux City citizens today can trace their lineages back to Sweden and these early Swedish settlers, and Swedish stock is one of the most common in Sioux City immigrants from Northern Europe.

 

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