The+Murder+of+Eric+Janson+of+Bishop+Hill

Original Author: Chris Brown, ENG206 SP10 Revision Author:   The story of Eric Jansen of Bishop Hill, IL also serves to show that vigilantism comes in other forms than just a small group of neighbors. He was such a strict leader of this small community that the members of his own community that he formed to keep the outside world away murdered him. The story is as follows:  After their arrival at Bishop Hill, the colonists set up quarters for the winter to come. The first land was purchased on September 26, 1846, but it was not until a year and a half later that they started any of the major buildings.  Religious services were first held in a tent built of logs and canvas. A center divider separated the women and the men. The first floor and the second floor were each divided into rooms 100 feet square. These rooms housed a total of twenty families. Families lived in one room, either in the church or in an apartment house. Single people were segregated by sex  Services in the structure were often three or four hours long and were conducted twice on weekdays and three times on Sundays. Dozers were cracked with a rush by monitors. First a chapter in the Bible was read and then explained by anyone who felt called to do so.  Colony dress was not dictated, but was uniformly the same. Linen, flannel, denim, and dress goods were woven in the colony. Each person received two full sets of clothes, one pair of boots, and one pair of shoes yearly.  The Illinois land was much better than Sweden's. It was well-drained and had deep topsoil, allowing the colonists to plant year after year without fertilizing. Small groves of leafy trees, plums, apples, berries, and hops were abundant.  <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">There were advantages to colony life. The people were not overworked, and each held a job at which he was talented. The old and the ill were cared for. The colonists enjoyed more comfort and security than their neighbors who struggled to stay warm and have enough to eat. Everyone under the age of fourteen attended school for six months during each year. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">The colony was successful in many ways. The system of work division allowed for greater production than if each person had several tasks. Some of the deserters eventually returned to life in the colony. One ". . . bought himself a stone house. . . and expected to live off of his riches. . . . He did not get any peace until he came back here. Letters to relatives who had remained in Sweden told of the colony's wealth and the happiness colonists experienced. Many encouraged others to join the colony.   <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">   <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">There were also disadvantages to colony life, Eric Janson expected the members to live on an eighth less than they had in Sweden. In the early days they fasted to save food. One man wrote: "'We have received the glad tidings that you. . . . have decided to forsake all your comfort to walk in Christ's footsteps. . . ."'. This implies that some had comfortable lives in Sweden and wouldn't have at Bishop Hill.  <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">   <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">During the first two winters, many died. Four hundred and seventy people were forced to live in twelve "dugouts", each 25 to 30 feet long and 18 feet wide. There were two tiers of beds on each side. In one dugout, there were three tiers of beds on each side with three women in each bed, or a total of 52 unmarried women. The food supply was poor and there was little heat. A single sod house was used as a kitchen and dining room. Many left after these hard winters.    <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">   <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">If a member decided to leave, he received no compensation for the years of labor he had donated to the colony's wellbeing. With the amount of profit that the trustees claimed the colony was earning, this was most likely done to discourage deserters. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> Colony failures were numerous. Asiatic Cholera was contracted by a group of immigrants, and they brought the disease to Bishop Hill. Janson would allow no doctors and told the people they were dying because they lacked faith. His wife died, and he blamed her death on their unbelief. Finally, after being threatened by area residents who planned to report his lack of action, he did allow a doctor to examine and treat the colonists. Those with fever were given no water in accordance with a medical superstition. About three weeks after his wife's death, Janson announced during a religious service that he had been instructed to seek a new "spiritual mother" for the colony. That night two believers appeared at his house and claimed that they had been chosen. He picked one of the women as his new wife. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">The murder of Eric Janson was also a failure on the part of the colony. John Root, a Swede who is rumored to have had a shady past, married Lotta Janson, the leader's cousin. Root was a restless man who never really joined the colony, but had signed a written agreement to allow his wife to remain in Bishop Hill if he ever decided to leave. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">He broke his part of the agreement when he took his wife and infant son away from the colony in 1849. Some of the Jansonists returned them to Bishop Hill, and Root again took his family, this time to his sister's home in Chicago. The sister disapproved of Root's actions and contacted the colony. The two were again returned to the colony where they went into hiding. Root led a mob of angry citizens to the town, but the neighbors of the colonists came to the rescue, and the mob disbanded. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">The Sunday before Janson was murdered, his sermon from II Timothy must have sounded like prophecy, "'I am already being offered and the time of my departure is come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith. . . . ' " <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Root brought court proceedings against Janson. On May 13, 1850, during the noon recess of the trial being held in the county courthouse in Cambridge, John Root fatally shot Eric Janson. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">The colonists expected Janson to arise because he had presented himself as a messianic leader who was bringing God's kingdom. He was laid in state for three days and then, failing to fulfill the colonists' expectations, was buried. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Eric Janson had stated that his rule was hereditary, and therefore should pass to his son. The child was young, so Mrs, Janson appointed Andreas Perglund as the boy's guardian. In actuality, she ran the business affairs of the colony. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">When Jonas Olson, who was in California on colony business, heard of Janson's death, he returned to the colony. He claimed that he should have charge of the colony because he had been closely associated with Janson. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">After the final division, "religiously, the Jansonists were spread to all winds. They became a flock without a shepherd." They had been raised as Lutherans. Then they became Jansonists. After the dissolution, Jonas Olson joined the Seventh Day Adventists. Anders Berglund became a Methodist preacher. A few, including Mrs. Janson, went to Kentucky where they joined a Shaker colony. Many preferred to sever all ties with the church. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">The original goal of the Bishop Hill Colony was to build a New Jerusalem in America where Eric Janson and his heirs would reign forever. Bishop Hill was to be a holy city where believers would not be influenced by outsiders. The colony's dissolution may be considered a failure of reaching the original goal. However, Eric Janson and the Colony still reign, if only among visitors in the little western Illinois town called Bishop Hill. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">**Work Cited** <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">[] <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Return to Wild Liberty <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Return to Home <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">The Murder of Eric Janson of Bishop Hill  **