# Hans Mattson *Swedish American politician, Union army colonel, and Minnesota Secretary of State* Hans Mattson (December 23, 1832 – March 5, 1893) was a Swedish American politician born in Önnestad, Sweden. He held the rank of colonel in the American Civil War (1861–65) and became [[Minnesota Secretary of State]] in 1869.[^1] He was later United States Consul General in India.[^1] His Minnesota career centered on Swedish settlement and state-sponsored immigration promotion. In 1853 he led a party of several hundred Swedish immigrants to [[Goodhue County, Minnesota]]. In 1866 he proposed a state Board of Immigration, which Governor [[William Rainey Marshall]] established in 1867.[^2] ## Biography Mattson's birthplace was a small farm in Önnestad parish, in the Swedish province of Skåne.[^2] In 1851 he and a friend emigrated to the United States. By 1853 he was farming in an established Swedish community in Illinois, and his family came over from Sweden to join him there.[^2] In August 1853 Mattson took several hundred Swedish immigrants to Goodhue County in [[Minnesota]]. Their settlement soon came to be called Vasa, and Swedish Americans including Governor [[John Lind (politician)|John Lind]] later made their homes there.[^2] Mattson moved from Vasa to Red Wing in 1856.[^2] The panic of 1857 left him financially ruined soon after that move. He and his wife, Christin (Peterson) Mattson (1837–1911), rebuilt from nothing.[^2] Once recovered, he gained admission to the Minnesota State Bar and turned to public office. He won election as Red Wing's city clerk in 1859 and afterward became auditor of Goodhue County.[^2] When the Civil War began in 1861, Mattson organized a company of Swedish and Norwegian immigrants for service in the Union army. His leadership of the 3rd Minnesota Volunteer Infantry Regiment brought him the rank of colonel. He went back to Red Wing when the war ended in 1865.[^2] Back in Minnesota, Mattson took up the promotion of immigration, at first on behalf of private railroad companies. His first such post was with the Saint Paul and Pacific Railroad, which employed him as a protection agent who met Swedish and Norwegian immigrants on their arrival in Chicago.[^2] Drawing on that work, in 1866 he proposed that the state create a Board of Immigration to recruit immigrants to take up homestead land in Minnesota.[^2] Until the 1880s, the states rather than the federal government regulated immigration to the United States.[^2] Governor Marshall established the board in 1867 and named Mattson to a position. The cached source text breaks off before stating what that position was, so the record here does not establish it.[^2] ## Sources The Wikipedia article on Mattson is substantially built on R.L. Cartwright's 2012 essay on him in MNopedia, published by the [[Minnesota Historical Society]]. It also draws on the Owl Edition of the Swedish encyclopedia *Nordisk familjebok* (1904–1926).[^3] ## Context in the Minnesota record On January 14, 2026, the [[United States Department of Justice]] announced a lawsuit against the State of Minnesota. The announcement was release No. 26-21, *United States Department of Justice Files Lawsuit Against Minnesota's 'Affirmative Action' Regime*. Its title uses the United States' own term for the State's apparatus: "Minnesota's 'Affirmative Action' Regime". Attorney General Pamela Bondi certified the case as a matter of general public importance.[^4] The record does not connect Mattson, or the nineteenth-century Board of Immigration, to that litigation.[^4] ## Notes [^1]: Wikipedia contributors, *Hans Mattson* (revision 1353240849, retrieved 2026-10-25), lead section — birth and death dates, Civil War colonelcy, Minnesota Secretary of State from 1869, later Consul General in India. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Mattson [^2]: Wikipedia contributors, *Hans Mattson* (revision 1353240849, retrieved 2026-10-25), "Biography" section — birthplace, emigration, the 1853 Vasa settlement, Red Wing offices, the 3rd Minnesota Volunteer Infantry, railroad work, and the 1866–67 Board of Immigration. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Mattson [^3]: Wikipedia contributors, *Hans Mattson* (revision 1353240849, retrieved 2026-10-25), "Note" section — the article's basis in R.L. Cartwright's 2012 MNopedia essay (Minnesota Historical Society) and in *Nordisk familjebok*. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Mattson [^4]: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Public Affairs, *United States Department of Justice Files Lawsuit Against Minnesota's 'Affirmative Action' Regime*, release No. 26-21 (Jan. 14, 2026) — the release's title and date, and Attorney General Bondi's certification of the case as a matter of general public importance. https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/united-states-department-justice-files-lawsuit-against-minnesotas-affirmative-action-regime