Situated along the Schuylkill River and the Matsunk Creek, this Swedish village was composed of roughly nineteen homes. After the conquering of the Swedish colony by the Dutch, followed by English control, in 1664, a third generation settler with the New Sweden Colony named Peter Yocum the Third (1678–1753) established Swedeland. William Penn offered the Swedish and Finnish colonists land from his grant in this Upper Merion area.
By the mid-nineteenth century, Abraham Supplee operated a factory producing Kentucky Jean, employing some twenty-five hands. The extensive works of the Swede Iron Company were also located here, consisting of two large furnaces and a railroad line leading from the iron ore mines to the Schuylkill River.
Passages that mention Swedeland, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania1884 · page 1118Read the page →
Read the text
still further to develop its resources. Besides the caual, the railroad runs its entire length on the Schuylkill, a distance of nine miles, with stations at Swedeland, Merion, Port Kennedy and Valley Forge. The Chester Valley Railroad, which was finished in 1853, extends throuf^li its entire width from east to west, about four miles, with stations at King of Prussia, Henderson and Shainline. It commences at
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
A brief history of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, with an accompanying map1923 · page 169Read the page →
Read the text
ville, carved out of Mount Joy Manor, greater part once the prop¬ erty’ of Duportail, the celebrated French military engineer of the Revolutionary War, through his neglect sold for taxes, 1804. To the left, Swedeland, settled 1696, old Swede church built 1760, Swedeland furnaces, Matsunk home of Andrew Supplee, ancestor of a numerous family.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
By decade
No old photos in the archives yet
Weddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Be the first to add onePhotograph a print flat, in daylight, no flash.
Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →
From Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
