In May, 1846 a small band of forty-two weary immigrants from Ostergotland, Sweden, embarked at Gothenberg on the freight sailship “Augusta”, loaded with iron to be shipped to New York.  After a voyage of nine weeks and three days the ship finally landed in New York harbor.  After a short stay in this city these people, accustomed to traveling by water, left New York by boat, starting up the Hudson River to Albany, then through the Erie Canal to Buffalo.  From Buffalo they took the route over Lake Erie and arrived at Toledo, Ohio;further by canal boats across the state of Ohio to Cincinnati.  From Cincinnati they took the Ohio River route to Cairo, Illinois, and from there to St. Louis Missouri.  Here they beheld strange sights, amoung them the selling of slaves at auction.  Then they went up the Mississippi River on leaky, old boats until they arrived at Keokuk, Iowa.  In September 1846, this “Anna Dalander” party was looking for the Peter Cassel group which had established a settlement, “New Sweden”, at Burlington, Iowa, and had settled some forty miles west at a point just north of present day Lockridge.  In a letter from “New Sweden” February 9, 1846, Peter Cassel mentioned a plan to send part of their group further west and establish a 1,000 acre claim on the “navigable Des Moines River”.  However, the steamboat barge that was pushing the Dalander barge could not navigate the Des Moines River rapids above Keokuk.  The barge was therefore sold at Keokuk, and two teams of horses and two oxen, wagons, and supplies were purchased.  Their voyage by ship and barge was now over and the long walk into Iowa began.  Undoubtedly they were looking for new settlement on the Des Moines River to which Peter Cassel had referred.  There could be no mistaking the thriving towns of Burlington and Keokuk at which the 1845 and 1846 groups respectively embarked.  Some past writers have incorrectly assumed the “Anna Dalander” party was lost; more likely it was not, since they were exactly following Peter Cassel’s directions.  The 1846 travelers found neither Cassel’s party nor the 1,000 acre claim, but they did find Charles Gaston.  Approximately one half of them returned to New Sweden.  The four families who decided to stay were Anna Dalander, and her six children, Mr. And Mrs. Magnus Anderson and their six children, Mr. and Mrs. A. Adamson and Mr. and Mrs. Jacob Nelson and their children.

     With the help of Mr. Gaston, these pioneers built log cabins and prepared for winter.  The hardships endured that winter and in the coming years were great.  Indians roamed the area; the closest provisions were to be found at Burlington, Keokuk, and Oskaloosa, and trips to these towns took two weeks.

     Even though their primary concern was survival, these staunch Lutherans were diligent in their study of God’s word.  They kept the Sabbath and other holy days, and met in each other’s homes for services.  Jacob Nelson usually led the services and John Dalander the singing.

     In 1854 the same year Anna Dalander died, the settlement was first visited by a Lutheran pastor.  This was M. F. Hokanson from New Sweden.  Rev. Hokanson was newly ordained at that time (possibly the first Swedish Lutheran minister ordained in America), but had assumed the duties of acting pastor at New Sweden in1848.  The Augustana Synod dated its unofficial origin from that time with the celebration of its centennial at New Sweden in 1948.  Other itinerant ministers also visited the small settlement from time to time, including L. P. Esbjorn and B. M. Holland.

     On October 18, 1859, under the leadership of Rev. Hokanson, St. John’s was formally organized with thirty-six communicants and their children as charter members.  They adopted the Chicago and Mississippi Conference Constitution and joined the Augustana Synod when it was organized in 1860.  Rev. Hokanson accepted the call to be pastor of St. John’s at an annual salary of $250 in cash, board, and thirteen cords of oak wood.