From the 1870s to 1890s, Swedish immigrants seeking to escape famine and an unsympathetic government came to the Midwest frontier of America in search of land and work. Railroads and lumbering industries offered attractive opportunities, and the Grand Rapids & Indiana Railroad sent the Rev. J. P. Tustin to Sweden to recruit laborers to build its line. To encourage settlement, the railroad donated 80 acres to the Swedish colony of New Blekinge (Tustin). Swedes crowded into this vicinity to build the railroad, log the forest, and labor in the sawmills. As the forest was depleted, many moved on, but others remained as permanent settlers whose descendants still live here. In this century, children of these settlers have gone across the country to make their contributions to America.