New Sweden is a small unincorporated community in northeastern

Travis County Travis County is located in south central Texas. As of the 2020 census, the population was 1,290,188. It is the fifth-most populous county in Texas. Its county seat is Austin, the capital of Texas. The county was established in 1840 and is na ...

, Texas, United States. It is located within the

Greater Austin The Austin–Round Rock–San Marcos metropolitan statistical area (or Greater Austin) is a five-county metropolitan area in the U.S. state of Texas, as defined by the Office of Management and Budget. The metropolitan area is situated in Ce ...

metropolitan area.

History

When it was founded in 1873, the community was known as Knight's Ranch; however, once the New Sweden Lutheran Church was built there in 1876, the name of the place changed to New Sweden (often written New Sweeden). In 1882, a

cotton gin A cotton gin—meaning "cotton engine"—is a machine that quickly and easily separates cotton fibers from their seeds, enabling much greater productivity than manual cotton separation.. Reprinted by McGraw-Hill, New York and London, 1926 (); a ...

was put into service at New Sweden, and a post office followed in 1887. By the middle of the 1890s, the community had 42 residents and two general businesses. Its population had grown to 104 by 1900. Mail serving the neighborhood was delivered to Manor when the post office was shut down in 1902. The population had decreased to 25 by the early 1930s, but by the end of the decade, 60 people were living there and remained at that number through 1990. The first pioneers of this settlement, with a few exceptions, came from the historic Swedish province of

Småland Småland () is a historical province () in southern Sweden. Småland borders Blekinge, Scania, Halland, Västergötland, Östergötland and the island Öland in the Baltic Sea. The name Småland literally means ''Small Lands''. The Latinized fo ...

.''Swedes In Texas In Pictures and Words''
/ref> The church has a Manor mailing address. It is recognized by its steeple. In 2009, the estimated population was 60.

Geography

New Sweden is on

Farm to Market Road 973 Farm to Market Road 973 (FM 973) is a farm-to-market road in Travis County, Texas, Travis and Williamson County, Texas, Williamson counties in the U.S. state of Texas. Route description FM 973 begins at U.S. Route 183 in Texas, US 183 sout ...

, five miles northeast of

Manor Manor may refer to: Land ownership *Manorialism or "manor system", the method of land ownership (or "tenure") in parts of medieval Europe, notably England *Lord of the manor, the owner of an agreed area of land (or "manor") under manorialism *Man ...

in northeastern Travis County.

Education

New Sweden hosted a common school district until it joined the Manda school district with other communities in the early 1940s. Today, the community is served by the Manor Independent School District. Schools serving the community are Shadowglen Elementary School, Manor Middle School, and Manor High School.

Gallery

File:New Sweden 3.jpg, A gravestone written in Swedish at the Lutheran cemetery in New Sweden, Texas.

References

{{authority control Unincorporated communities in Texas Unincorporated communities in Travis County, Texas Swedish-American culture in Texas Swedish-American history