Jonas Swensson

Who was Jonas Swensson?

Jonas Swensson was a noted minister of the Lutheran Church and president of the Augustana Evangelical Lutheran Church.

Swensson was born in Snollsbo, Våthult, Jönköping County in Sweden. He attended high school at Växjö. He was ordained at the Växjö Cathedral on October 8, 1851. His Swedish pastoral service was at Unnaryd, situated in Hylte Municipality, Halland County, Sweden. He married Maria Blixt in 1856 and emigrated the same year to begin work at Sugar Grove, Pennsylvania and later at Jamestown, New York.

The organizing meeting of the Augustana Evangelical Lutheran Church was held at the Jefferson Prairie Settlement, near Clinton, Wisconsin from June 5–8, 1860. Jonas Swensson was part of the quartet of pastors, together with Lars Paul Esbjörn, Tuve Hasselquist, and Erland Carlsson who pioneered the Augustana Evangelical Lutheran Church also known as the Augustana Synod. After serving as secretary of the church for several years, he was president of the Augustana Synod from 1870 to his death December 20, 1873.