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Chapter 13. Corncobs to Classmates: Swedish Americans at a Norwegian American College
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❖ 219 ❖ ❖ ❖ ❖ ❖ ❖ ❖ ❖ ❖ ❖ ❖ ❖ ❖ ❖ ❖ ❖ ❖ ❖ Chapter 13 Corncobs to Classmates Swedish Americans at a Norwegian American College Joy K. Lintelman The nickname for students, alumni, and athletic teams at Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota, is “Cobbers,” a shortened version of the earlier nickname “Corncobs.” An unusual appellation for students at a Christian liberal arts institution , the name developed from a rivalry that existed between students at two different Moorhead schools. One, Hope Academy, was founded by Swedish Lutherans , and the other, Concordia College, was established by Norwegian Lutherans. According to early Concordia faculty member Rasmus Bogstad, after Concordia had opened in the early 1890s, young men from Hope interrupted Concordia literary programs with the chant: Corncobs! Corncobs! (Corncobs! Corncobs! Hva’ ska’ Ni Ha? What will you have? Lutefisk and lefse— Lutefisk and lefse— Yah! Yah! Yah! Yah! Yah! Yah!) While Concordia students soon gained revenge against the Hope students with “pugilistic fist-fights,” the nickname of Corncobs stuck, ultimately shortened to Cobs and then Cobbers in the 1920s, and remains as a label held dear by generations of Concordia College students and alumni into the twenty-first century.1 The name-calling incident indicates late nineteenth-century divisions between Swedish and Norwegian Americans in the Red River Valley of Minnesota and North Dakota. Also representative of this split was the founding of Concordia College, which was initially established as a Norwegian alternative to the Swedish Hope Academy. When Swedish-Lutheran Hope opened in 1888, NorwegianLutheran congregations were invited to send their sons and daughters to the school. Norwegian-Lutheran pastors in the region were not eager to promote the offer, however. Their decision was likely based in part on the facts that Norwegians greatly outnumbered Swedes in most of the Valley and that Hope had achieved full enrollment already in its second term. Recognizing that Hope could never accommodate all of the Norwegian students in the region, the Norwegians might have considered joining with the Swedes to expand the facility. Instead, in 1889 220 ❖ Joy K. Lintelman a group comprised mostly of Norwegian-Lutheran pastors began discussing the creationofaseparateNorwegian-LutheranschoolinMoorhead.Theseplanscame to fruition in 1891 when Concordia College (though really only an academy at that point) opened its doors for students.2 While the establishment of the two Moorhead Lutheran schools, as well as the Corncob taunting incident, suggests at least competitive if not negative interrelations between Norwegians and Swedes on the northern plains, an examination of interaction between the two ethnic groups at Concordia College over time reveals that relations between Norwegian and Swedish immigrants and their descendants were more friendly than not. While Norwegian Americans have comprised the majority of Concordia students throughout its history, small minorities of Swedish American students have consistently chosen to attend the college. The closure of Hope Academy in 1896, the ease with which Norwegian and Swedish immigrants could communicate with each other, and the shared history and traditions (particularly with regard to the Lutheran faith) of Swedish and Norwegian Americans in the region all encouraged positive interactions between the two groups. These reasons also help explain the continued presence of Swedish Americans at this Norwegian American school. Hope Academy’s inability to weather the economic downturn of the 1890s as compared with Concordia’s survival during that decade was probably tied to the relatively smaller Swedish population in the region. When Hope’s doors shut in 1896, no other comparable Swedish-Lutheran school existed in the area. Hope Academy’s closing contributed to Concordia’s developing reputation as a school that could meet not only the educational needs of Norwegian-Lutheran families in North Dakota and northern Minnesota but those of Swedish-Lutheran families as well.3 The cooperation between Norwegian- and Swedish-Lutheran immigrants in the early years of Scandinavian emigration to the United States probably also made it easier both for Swedish Lutherans to consider attending Concordia and for Norwegian Lutherans to accept and welcome them. The roots of the United [Lutheran] Synod (whose clergy and congregants were the initial supporters of Concordia) included collaboration between Norwegians and Swedes. The Scandinavian Evangelical Lutheran Augustana Synod was established in 1860 and consisted of both Swedish and Norwegian congregations. This collaboration lasted until 1870, when the Norwegians amicably left the Augustana Synod to establish the Norwegian-Danish Augustana Synod and the Conference of the Norwegian-Danish Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. These two groups, along with anti–Missouri Synod members of the Norwegian Synod (established 1853), merged in 1890 to form the Norwegian United Church synod...