Historical Address, Minnesota Co.Nference

Volume VI July 1948 Number 4 . Historical Address, Minnesota Co.nference Bv EMEROY JoHNso HIS is Lhe year of our Aug·usLana Cem ennial. WiLh pon, Burlington, St. Louis. The while pine of the St. Tgratiwde LO God we recall the day of our beginnings. Croix Valley is being made into hou e , faCLories, stores One small congregaLion in Iowa, organized in 1848, a in a thousa nd towns and cities of the booming Midwest. liule group of Christian men and women who felt the · But as ye t there i no Chisago Lake Church, no Center call of the Spirit in their heans, and who, having no pas Cit , no Chisago Coumy, no Minneapolis, no Minnesota. LOr, organized a co ngregation and called one of their own 1L is eleven years ince the Chippewa and Sioux Indians men to aclmini ter the means of grace-such was the un were persuaded to give up all their rights to the triangle pr Lemious yet sacred origin of the church body which of land ~eLween Lhe St. Croix and the Mississippi, approxi we now call our own, the Lutheran Augustana Synod. mately a far north a lo foose Lake and Brainerd. -When Lh e Synod iLself was organized in 1860 it had fifteen The Pioneers Arrive co ngrega tions in Minnesota. The earliest of these had \ •Ve leave that sce ne of 1848. We come back to the same their beginning nearly a century ago. spot three years later, on an April day in 1851. The scenery Let us this evening visit some of the scenes of bygone is fa miliar: The same forested slopes, the greenish black days and picture lo our minds the Minnesota of a hundred lraprock of the dall es, the river clown below, the hills of years ago. I invite yo u first of all Lt> come with me to a Wiscon in rising b yond. More logs are flo ating down the spot about Len miles from where we now are gathered. river. But what is Lh at coming around Lh e bend from the \Ve mee t on_a high \·am age point at the Dalles of Lhe St. outh? How can logs float upstream? No, it is not a raft of Croix River, near the village of Taylors Falls. The time is logs coming against the current. Il is a rather clumsy a May day in 1848-let us say May 30. lL is a lovely land homemade flat-bottomed boat. And it is followed by an scape. Down below us the river winds along between its other similar craft. T here are men on the boat~ . and Lraprock walls, on iLs way LO meet the Mississippi. Beyond women too, and household goods, immigrant trunks, box the t. Croix rise the greenclad hills of Wisconsin. Wiscon es . implements. The men are laboriously pushing these sin I A new name in the rosLer of slates! Yes terday, May 29, boaLs upsLream wiLh long, stout poles . It is evident that 1848, \ iV isconsin, was admitted to the Union, another star they are having a struggle with their heavy loads against is added to Old Glory's galaxy, the thinieth star on the Lhe currem of the St. Croix. Sometimes it seems that their fi eld of blue. effons will be in \'ain' , but slowly, steadily they advance Now as we sLand wa tching the river, on this fay morn up the ri ver umil they reach the landing place below the in'g in 1848, we see no farms, no fences, no roads. But oc point where we are standing. casionally we caLch sight of logs floating down the river. Who are they? Our curiosity is stirred. Our interest is Th while man h as begun the conquest of Lhis region. aroused. Who are these people just now setting foot on the Taylors Falls i a little primitive trading post. Sawmills soil of Minnesota? They are the Pilgrim fathers of the are singing their strident song at Marine and Stillwater,. Lutheran Minne ota Conference. They are the founders a few miles down the. river. The tall white pines of the of Chisag·o Lake, they are the first brave band of the thou for t primeval are falling, floating down to the mills, sands of Scandinavian immigrants who since have settled down to Lh e lumber yards at Rock Island, Moline, Daven- in these regions, built their homes, and helped to establish ADVANCE Page 2 free democratic institutions and a church founded upon presses itself in a free recognition of the rights, the abili the Word of the Jiving God. Somewhere in the immigrant ties, and the personal worth of one's fellowmen. This is trunk on that flatboat these Minnesota Pilgrims 'had a freedom of enterprise at its best, the freedom to cooperate book with the title "Den Heliga Skrift" (The Holy Scrip with neighbors in building a better life for one's commu tures). That sacred volume became the cornerstone of the nity and for posterity. In such an enterprise God Himself new community which they established. enters in with His blessing. The pioneen of our church These Pilgrim fathers of our Lutheran faith had no hefe in this country did not sit down to philosophize much aristrocratic names nor grandiose titles. They were plain about their role in American history or in church history, Peter Anderson, Per Wicklund, Per Berg, Anders Swen bµt constrained by the love of Christ in their hearts they son, Daniel Rattig. As they step ashore on the soil of came together voluntarily Lo cooperate in the establish Minnesota they are met by one who speaks their langu~ge, ment of democratic institutions and a free church. a fellow, countryman by the name of Nordberg. With him One month before Minnesota became a Territory, in as guide and helper they soon set to work on the prosaic .1849, a 15-year-old farmer lad, Eric Norelius, left his home yet thrilling task of cutting a trail through the woods from in Hassela, Helsingland, Sweden, to attend high school in Taylors Falls to Chisago Lake, a distance of ten miles. In Hudiksvall. He hoped to enter the ministry in the Church the first week of May 1851 they bring their families, their of Sweden. Five years later he was in Minnesota, and to belongings, and their Christian faith to the spot where this state he gave nearly sixty years of service as a Lutheran they had chosen to build their homes. churchman. He organized, or helped to establish, at least Whence came these Lutheran Pilgrim fathers of Minne a score of congregations; he was one of the organizers of sota? How did they think of coming to this place? We who the Minnesota Conference; he was the founder of a school, have entered into their inheritance, we who build on the now Gustavus Adolphus College; he started an orphan foundations they laid, we surely ought to know something home, the first such institution in Minnesota, Vasa Chil of the story of our spiritual ancestry. The Minnesota Con dren's Home, the oldest charitable institution of our Con ference today is an American church group. Almost every ference; he left us a valuable collection of writings, chiefly nationality is represented among the 123,000 members of on the history of our church. our Conference. The Chisago Lake Church has members In his youth Eric Norelius was deeply wuched by the who are of the sixth generation of the early pioneers. Bu.t religious awakening that stirred the very soul of Sweden whatever our national background may be, we rejoice to a century ago. Convinced in his own heart that he had to share in the spiritual heritage handed down to us by those received the grace of God unto salvation, he longed who founded our church. They came from Sweden, where share God's love with others. He entered eagerly into his the Lutheran Church already had a history of 300 years. studies. But lacking financial means, he was forced to quit school in Hudiksvall a year after he had begun. Then the It is not likely that any of these Swedish immigrams thought of emigra1 ion to America took form in his mind. had ever seen a copy of the United States constitution, About Easter time, 1850, as the long northern winter but one of its chief articles they knew before they left wearily drew to a close the young and studious, but dis Sweden: Freedom of religion was one of the basic prin couraged high school boy packed up his books and return ciples of American life. Though some people from the ed home to Hassela. I-te found his neighbors and his rela state churches of Europe cast off all religious restraints tives eagerly discussing America. Excitement was in the and came here to have freedom from religion, we can re air. New ideas, new visions, a new horizon had appeared joice and thank God that there also were many who had Lo the memal outlook of this old, staid, conservative, come to know the glorious freedom of abiding in Christ woodland community of northern Sweden. A well-to-do and who came to America with the hope and the intention and well reputed land owner, Peter Anderson, had de of planting the church in their new homeland. I cided to sell his farm and en'ligrate to America. Many of Christian Freedom of Enterprise his neighbors wanted to accompany him, and among these We hear rnuch today of America as the land of free was Anders Norelius, Eric's older brother.

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