Rev. William Swenson served as pastor of Tampico's Methodist Church 1927-1929. This is a note he wrote to the editor of the Tampico Tornado (the local newspaper).

Crete, IL, Nov. 7, 1929

Friend Denison:

A sense of obligation to you and to Mrs. Denison, as well as to other friends In Tampico has prodded my fifth rib for a couple of weeks with an urge to send back a bit of message thru the Tornado, and let you and the friends know how fares the old preacher. We still feel grateful for the perfectly gorgeous weather which favored us moving week, especially in face of conditions the following week. Every day that drizzly week, we thought of our farmer friends in the Tampico country. We are now beginning to feel settled and have a cosy nest on Dixie Highway. The church faces west right on the highway and the parsonage faces north on North Street east of the church. On holidays, more than a thousand autos pass by, so that my desire “To live in a house by the side of the road and be a friend to man,” is being pretty well fulfilled.

We like the people to whom we have been sent to minister, so far as we have opportunity to mingle with them. We have a fine large Sunday School and a peppy little Epworth League. The Ladies’ Aid gathered in about $600 in cash last year. What say you to that? What we need here, you need there and everywhere, a real spiritual uplift. Two short years spent among you were profitable to my wife and myself in many ways. The genuine, quiet friendship of folks, who had never heard of us, until our names were coupled with yours at Rock River Conference in October, 1927, can never be erased from memory. God bless you all for your wholesome sympathy when heartbreak was near at hand over the spiritual condition of folks who failed to give their souls a chance. Take our most hearty salutation, brother Tornado, into every home you enter.

William and Emma Swenson

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