Swede Grove Township, Meeker County, Minnesota

Swede Grove Township was first settled in 1857 by N. E. Hanson, Nels Elofson, Hans Peterson, Peter E. Lund, Nels Weylander, Andrew Petersonk, and John Rosencranz. There were a few others with their families. The township was named by N. E. Hanson and Nels Elofson because it was settled by Swedes and there was a nice grove of trees nearby. Nels was the second white man in Meeker County. The township, originally a part of Acton Township, was organized on March 15, 1868. Nels Elofson was appointed postmaster in 1859.

The same day as the Indian attack in Acton in 1862, a meeting of some of the settlers was being held at Nels Elofson's house in Swede Grove in the morning. The purpose of the meeting was not about the Indians, as they hadn't heard about the massacre yet. The purpose was to find three men to go off into service in the Union Army. Swede Grove Township was required to fill the draft quota made on it by the government. At about ten o'clock in the morning, Nel's neighbor Ole Monson's children came running in the house and informed their father, and the other settlers at the meeting, that some Indians were in the area. The children were frightened and wanted to stay at the house. Monson and Swan Nelson went to see what the trouble was. Along the way, they met some Indians on horseback. One of the Indians reached down from his horse, grabbed Nelson by his whiskers, and pointed to the east. Swan didn't understand what the Indian was trying to tell him. They parted company peacefully.

The Indians stopped at Elofson's place. Nels knew several of them. They told Nels that they were on their way to the “Big Woods” for the purpose of killing some Chippewas who, they said, had been killing the whites, then rode off. Before long, news of the murders of the Jones and Baker families in Acton got to Nels and, in the evening, he and Nels Hanson went to the scene of the murders where others had also gathered. There they learned the details of the attack and were told to come back the next morning to help bury the dead, which they did. While they were there, nine Indians came in sight and several shots were exchanged, but no one was hurt. Elofson returned to his home and helped to get up his and all the neighboring families to go to Ripley (now Litchfield).

When the settlers returned to their homes later, they found that the Sioux had burned down most of the houses, except for a couple. The couple not burned down were the homes of men who had been friendly with the Indians, like Nels, and even had troubled to learn their language. Their homes had been “protected” by a yellow feather on a post marking it. On September 1, 1862, seventeen men and some others started for Green Lake on the word there was a family on an island there. But Green Lake has no islands. They were turned back at Swede Grove, however, after a skirmish with the Indians. Two Indians were killed and a soldier named Samuel B. Hutchins, from Kingston, was hit in the thigh with a musket ball. On their way away from the skirmish, Ovid B. Todd was injured when someone's gun accidentally discharged.

A summer of 1925 Litchfield newspaper headline read: “Man, 93, Arrested as Still Tender, Stands on Rights. Nels Elefson (Elofson was the correct spelling) of Meeker County Held as State's Oldest Moonshiner.” Other than the fact that the paper got his name and age wrong, the old settler, who died a couple of months later on June 8, 1925, at the correct age of 90 plus, was going to go out with a bang. Nels, who, as I wrote, was involved in the Sioux Uprising, was still the oldest man ever accused of bootlegging in Minnesota. Prohibition agent Ole Olson brought Nels into custody. According to the newspaper article, Nels was “said to have been caught red-handed in the act of tending a still cooker in Grove City. Elefson was born in 1831 (actually June 18, 1834) and used to be a justice of the peace in his county.” (He was also the postmaster in Swede Grove in 1859.) “It's my constitutional right to make moonshine if I want to,” Nels stated. The article went on that “the still, said to have been operated there by the aged man, was in a tiny teapot and that it took him (Nels) three weeks to make a quart of alcoholic liquor which he used in his coffee in the morning, the habit of 80 years. Elefson is known as a pioneer and Indian fighter of the early days. He was released on his own recognizance.” Notable locations in Swede Grove Township are Cojo Dairy, Grove Creek Raceway, Trinity Lutheran Church, Fellowship Church, and the First Lutheran Cemetery.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the township has a total area of 35.6 square miles (92.1 km²), of which 34.7 square miles (89.8 km²) is land and 0.9 square mile (2.3 km²) (2.47%) is water.

Swede Grove Township is located in Township 120 North of the Arkansas Base Line and Range 32 West of the 5th Principal Meridian.

As of the census[1] of 2000, there were 414 people, 132 households, and 111 families residing in the township. The population density was 11.9 people per square mile (4.6/km²). There were 139 housing units at an average density of 4.0/sq mi (1.5/km²). The racial makeup of the township was 95.65% White, 1.21% African American and 3.14% Asian.

There were 132 households, out of which 41.7% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 68.2% were married couples living together, 7.6% had a female householder with no husband present, and 15.9% were non-families. 12.9% of all households were made up of individuals, and 3.8% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 3.14 and the average family size was 3.43.

In the township, the population was spread out, with 34.5% under the age of 18, 6.5% from 18 to 24, 27.5% from 25 to 44, 18.8% from 45 to 64, and 12.6% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 34 years. For every 100 females, there were 109.1 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 116.8 males.

The median income for a household in the township was $39,750, and the median income for a family was $39,000. Males had a median income of $28,676 versus $21,875 for females. The per capita income for the township was $15,395. About 13.9% of families and 18.8% of the population were below the poverty line, including 28.7% of those under age 18 and 12.7% of those age 65 or over.