Few narrative accounts exist today about or by the Swedish Texans. Of wonderful exception are the letters from the Bergman brothers.

Carl Johan Bergman and his brother, Clæs Fredrik (called "Fred"), came to Texas, choosing the New Sweden area east of Austin in 1883. They soon operated a farm in the community of Lund and wrote many letters over the decades to their sisters in Sweden.

The letters give a remarkably detailed account of how Texas was seen by immigrants. Often signing the letters together, they compliment and criticize Texas. One thing new was the ever-shifting Texas weather, as Carl writes:

"I wish that I could describe Texas for you, but it would be too difficult, for much is still strange to me. . . . When it begins to rain, it can last for long periods of time and the same is true for periods of no precipitation. . . .

"The soil here is of such a consistency, that when it rains, we can neither ride nor walk, it becomes so muddy, so then we have to stay inside long hours. Or, if we do go out, we have to ride horses. Winter is variable, sometimes warm, sometimes cold. We have no winter before Christmas. . . . Fred and I have slept outside on the porch for over a week . . . it is so warm in our room that we can't sleep there.

"I don't think you'd recognize us; we have become brown and lean. . . ."

But Fred, writing years later in 1908, had become used to the climate, claiming, "I would freeze to death in an instant if I were at home." And, married by then to Olga Nygren, he noted his lack of attraction to Texas women. "Here in Texas, women are in general small and thin, the climate is the reason."

Fred summed up the Swedish Texan experience: ". . . Texas is a place for the poor to work their way up by means of work and thrift. Poor Swedes come here practically all the time, and in a few years they are independent. This place is not for a lazy bones but for the diligent."