Category World War I
Military Training in the Schools, 1914-1918
For my post on August Sundvall, the first former Bethel student to die in the First World War, I drew on an obituary published in a 1920 book about Fort Sheridan, where Sundvall had trained to become an officer. In the book’s introduction, the camp’s former commandant, Brig. Gen. J.A. Ryan, bemoaned the failure of American education […]
WWI on Twin Cities Campuses
How typical was Bethel’s experience of the century of modern warfare that started in 1914? While we’ll stay fairly close to Bethel for the project itself, early on in my research I’ve been dabbling with the history of some of Bethel’s peers: neighbors in the Twin Cities and other Christian colleges. So today I’ll kick off an occasional […]
“The First”
The first person connected to Bethel to die in our century of warfare perished on April 20, 1918. Originally from New Richmond, Wisconsin, August Leo Sundvall had attended Bethel Academy early in its history, 1908-1909, when it was located at the intersection of Como and Carter in the St. Anthony Park neighborhood of St. Paul. […]
Introductions: World War I and World War II
While this project is a collaboration with Fletcher — indeed, it’s probably the most collaborative research project I’ve ever attempted — we’ll each take primary responsibility for two of the four wars in Bethel’s past century of warfare. Fletcher will handle the more recent history, focusing on the Vietnam War and the War on Terror. Which leaves me with […]
Welcome to “Bethel at War”
The year 2014 marks the 100th anniversary of the beginning of World War I, one of the most devastating events in human history. Much less famously, 1914 was also the year that the Swedish Baptist Theological Seminary moved from Chicago, Illinois to St. Paul, Minnesota, where it merged with — and took the name of — a Christian […]
Bethel at War 1914 - 2014 