Jansson, Eric (19 December 1808–13 May 1850), founder of the Janssonist religious sect and Bishop Hill utopian community, was born in Biskopskulla, Sweden, the son of Johannes Mattson, a landowner, and Sara Ersdotter. Jansson was born into and raised as a member of the Swedish Lutheran church. At age twenty-two, however, Jansson felt a personal call from God and was miraculously relieved of recurring bouts of rheumatism. Because his healing had occurred without the benefit of clergy, Jansson indicted the state church. “It dawned on me,” he noted, “that I had been deceived in the faith which I had received from the so-called evangelical Lutheran teaching,” and he concluded that “all the preachers and teachers were blind leaders” (quoted in Elmen, p. 3). These ideas festered within Jansson over the next decade as he became a ...
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Jansson, Eric (1808-1850), founder of the Janssonist religious sect and Bishop Hill utopian community
Scott Cormode
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Rockwell, George Lincoln (1918-1967), leader of the American Nazi Party
Sharon D. Rudy
Rockwell, George Lincoln (09 March 1918–25 August 1967), leader of the American Nazi Party, was born in Bloomington, Illinois, the son of George “Doc” Rockwell, a vaudeville comedian, and Claire Schade, a dancer. Rockwell was six when his parents divorced; from then on he lived with one or the other of his parents in Maine, Rhode Island, and New Jersey....
