A Vermont historian is writing a book about a short-lived program from 1890 that brought Swedish immigrants to the state to help repopulate its dwindling hill farms.
Lyndon State College professor Paul Searls says the program was controversial because many people couldn't understand why the state was supporting Swedes when Vermonters were struggling. Each Swede was offered $25 and a cow, but it's unclear how many people actually received the payments.
The 55 Swedes who came to Vermont settled in Weston, Wilmington and Vershire.
One of their descendants is 73-year-old East Dummerston resident Earl Cavanagh. He says he remembers hearing his elderly aunts speak Swedish while he was growing up in the 1940s, but he wasn't interested then. Now he's working to learn more about those ancestors.
