“I Want to Write About My Days of a Slower Progress”

Alice Dahlin's family were among the first settlers in the Wisconsin community of West Sweden. The rough, heavily wooded land was cleared and the settlement was begun in the 1860s; in 1875 Alice's father was elected to the first town council. Also in 1875, the town built a new school, one and one-half miles from the Dahlin farm, large enough to hold the expanding enrollment and to provide space for social gatherings and church services.