Wheat Flour Messiah: Eric Jansson of Bishop Hill

by Paul Elmen

Wheat Flour Messiah follows the career of Eric Jansson from his boyhood on a farm near Biskopskulla (Bishop’s Hill) in Sweden until his murder in Illinois by a crazed follower in 1850. He was an untutored but brilliant charismatic leader, who by sheer insolence and self-confidence defied both the Swedish state church and the secular government and persuaded some twelve hundred of his wheat flour customers to throw in their lot with him. The essence of his teaching was that anyone who so desired could receive the grace of God in such rich measure that he would instantly be freed of sin and live in angelic innocence from then on. This doctrine was an imperfectly understood version of Methodist perfectionism, held without Wesleyan safeguards, and it doomed his followers to civil war against the Lutheran church.

Jansson went north to Hälsingland in Sweden to sell wheat flour, but his deeper intention was to hold large religious services in the farmyards of followers. On three occasions he and his followers burned all the allegedly heretical books written by such men as Luther, Nohrborg, and Arndt, singing hymns while the flames "destroyed the works of the Devil." Jansson was jailed six times, and six times he was freed. After his last trial, as he was being escorted to jail, he escaped and later arranged passage to America. His disciples followed him in a series of Atlantic crossings during 1847–49 and settled the utopian colony of Bishop Hill, 150 miles west of Chicago. They built impressive buildings, plowed the virgin prairie, and began some successful industry making wagons and weaving rugs.

Two fateful events spelled the doom of this utopian dream. The first, the cholera epidemic of 1849, killed over two hundred of the colonists. The other was the arrival of John Root, who subsequently married Jansson’s cousin, Charlotte, and who, after a series of altercations with Jansson over Charlotte, shot him to death in Cambridge, Illinois. The colony did not long survive without its Prophet, and ten years later the utopian dream ended. Today Bishop Hill remains little changed from a century ago—a colorful memory of American beginnings, a vivid reminder of its fascinating past.

Dr. Elmen’s book tells for the first time the life story of a folk hero, Eric Jansson. The Bishop Hill Colony was clearly the lengthened shadow of this extraordinary man. Students of utopian colonies, teachers and students of American history and religious movements will find here a definitive account of this piece of the American past. Any reader interested in the American Dream will enjoy this account of a vanished people who thought they could find somewhere on earth a great, good place, and who had to learn after much suffering that one cannot express in waking reality the character of man in his dreams.

240 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1976

Reviews

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

"The story of Eric Jansson and the Bishop Hill commune provides a striking, almost bizarre chapter in the rich history of religious utopias in antebellum America. The brief existence of this colony of Swedish immigrants in northern Illinois was tempestuous and often violent, mirroring the personality of its fiery and charismatic leader. With considerable care and perspicacity, Professor Elmen... traces the spiritual odyssey of Jansson from his youth on a Swedish farm to his death b y shooing in 1850" -Stephen H. Wurster, The Old Northwest
"Jansson is not a sympathetic character. He hated learning. He was a vivid bigot. He burned books. His dream of absolute innocence and pure holiness was betrayed by the real world's inability to answer the demands of the ideal would . Yet it is a measure of Elmen's clear and facile style, and the temperateness with which he approaches the hope and failings of Eric Jansson, that the reader comes eventually to an appreciation of what this flawed prophet sought to create." - Donald Zochert, Chicago Daily News

[Mary Davidsaver · Rating 5 out of 5]

I lived in Bishop Hill for 24 years and this slim volume documenting Jansson's life and times contains all the elements that I would have expected and a few that I hadn't. Elmen's research was thorough, and I appreciated his attempts to dissect the complex nature of the search for perfection that fueled the quest for a new home in a foreign land. Those first Swedish settlers found a raw untamed prairie in Henry County, IL in 1846 and proceeded to shape a utopian haven. The buildings they created from soil, clay, and wood are still there, some are not in the best of shape, but most are still standing. There are descendants of those original colonists still living there, still working to save their heritage, their little bit of Sweden on the prairie. It's a tribute to the immigrant soul in all of us and an acknowledgement that perfection can't be easily found or forged.

[Colin Feely · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredible work by Elman. You can tell he really has a passion for the subject. He has many original translations in this book that I’d consider important for any Bishop Hill enthusiast. Namely Jameson’s unpublished autobiography and many feasted letters and newspapers which Elman traveled to Sweden to translate.

[Jack B · Rating 5 out of 5]

I remember feeling sad when I finished this book, because the story was so immersive and I wanted there to be more. Definitely one of the most unique stories to come out of Illinois.