Published three times a year, Solorlag members enjoy news from Norway, informative articles and first hand updates about lag and stevne happenings through the lag newsletter, Glama Ekko. The Glama, Norway's longest river, is depicted in the Solorlag logo because it connects all of the original parishes of Solor and provides a common bond for all of Hedmark from North to South. For many years large quantities of timber were floated to market on the Glama. The Glama and its echoes, through Hedmark and history, are reflected in our newsletter's name.
Our newsletter is edited by Forrest Emmett
Submissions for publication are most welcome and can be submitted to the editor at: [email protected]
Our newsletter is edited by Forrest Emmett
Submissions for publication are most welcome and can be submitted to the editor at: [email protected]
in a previous newsletters
In our July issue you will find a photo essay of the Melsnes farm in Åsnes. Above is a 1920 aerial view of the farm. Also, seven things learned from a visit to Norway that may help travelers.
The Grue Church Fire
Pentecost Sunday – 26 May 1822
A presentation by Priscilla Sorknes, Eau Claire Stevne, 1992
That Sunday morning was a bright day with a lovely sun shining from the background of a clear blue sky. It had been warm, dry weather for weeks, not a raindrop anywhere. This day was no exception, but a strong wind was blowing from the southwest.
The old cruciform church with its steeple and shingle roof lay brown-black in the sunshine, tarred as it had been time after time throughout its long life. While some of the parishioners believed the old edifice to have been built much earlier, 1609 was the date on the old church tower’s north side. The minister Iver Hesselberg’s words after the fire, “God forbid that the Word which here was spoken for more than 200 years should have been in vain,” would seem to indicate his conception of the church’s age at that time.
On this particular Sunday, on their way to the church, many recalled an old prophesy that the church would be destroyed on Pentecost. As friends and relatives met while walking or riding to the church services, there were those who in jest reminded each other of it. Parishioners from the Oppakersundet farm on the west side of the Glåmma asked some who were not attending the service if perhaps they dared not go because it was Pentecost and the church would be destroyed.
Even so, friends and neighbors from the entire community were gathering at the Grue church. Gradually the church filled up. The parishioners came in through the main entrance in the west and in the door on the south side. In the north cross-arm was the sacristy which had a door in from the churchyard and one leading into the church. The altar lay toward the east opposite the main entrance and, where the northeast cross-arm met, stood the pulpit.
Just before the service was to begin, there were between 500 and 600 people gathered to hear God’s Word, “young and old, rich and poor, men, women and children.” Many of the mothers were carrying very young infants for there was to be baptism that day, on Pentecost Sunday. Many friends and relatives had arranged to gather with each other for visiting after the morning service. It was indeed a joyous day.
Through the windows, high up on the walls, there fell a thin light over the church family. Most sat down on the church’s main floor the men on the south side, the women and younger children on the north side. Many, mostly the young people, sat in the two gallery pews, (balconies); the unmarried women and servant girls were sitting in the north balcony.
Pastor Hesselberg’s sermon theme was “storm and fire as is pictured in the Holy Scriptures about the power and work of the Holy Spirit.” A few moments after the service had started, the elderly parish caretaker left through the south church door on his way to the husman’s cottage nearby. His mission was to collect embers of fire for lighting the altar candles before the communion. Since 1739, church law mandated the lighting of candles at the beginning of communion services. The embers were placed in a brazier (container) of copper alloy as was customary; originally the brazier had been a censer (vehicle for the burning of incense) from Catholic times. Appropriately, the caretaker laid ashes over the embers and put the cover on the brazier, which did have a few air holes.
After sitting awhile in the husman’s cottage, he proceeded back to the church carrying the brazier on the side sheltered by the wind. Re-entering the south entrance, he stood nearby waiting for Pastor Hesselberg to complete his sermon to the congregation.
In the meantime the minister had taken his place in the pulpit. “With imploring soul I spoke to the large congregation about the Lord’s work in Christ’s church through the power of the Holy Spirit: how as storm and fire God reprimands, comforts and inspires all who will accept God’s grace for the saving of souls. I was near to the departure of the spiritual address, when….”
The clock was then about eleven. Not a cloud in the sky; not a sign of an impending storm, but yet, suddenly, the congregation heard a loud roaring like thunder. At that moment, just as they arose from the pews in wonderment, flames and black smoke broke in through a window near the southwest corner not far from the main entrance. In screams of panic, the people rushed out of the pews for the nearest exit. Already on the south side, most of the men made their way to safety through the south door. Many, including Pastor Hesselberg, had managed to escape through windows. Those who were assisted out by them who came to help from the outside. In this way many women and a few children were brought to safely.
The last to come out the windows had partly burned clothing. Some, while they strived to come up to the windows, were dragged back down by the others who hung onto them, thus hoping to be brought to safety.
However, the women and children sitting on the north side rushed toward the sacristy door to the north; it was the farthest from the flames. Simultaneously, the unmarried women and servant girls were pushing down the flight of stairs from the north balcony on the cross-arm of the church. These stairs came down near the door leading from the sacristy. This door, as all the other doors in the church, opened inward; the passage became crammed with terrified people in such a way that the door to the sacristy could not be opened. People who had already escaped the danger tried to open the door from the outside, unsuccessfully.
The wind caught the flames with furious speed in the tinder dry wood and the church was soon full of black suffocating smoke. Screams and crying blended with the crackling of flames. The last one who got himself out the sacristy door, went on the backs and shoulders of the people who were packed together in front of the door and fell down from above through the opening which those on the outside had managed to make by force. The fire was then in the ceiling over him; right after this many had come out, the steeple fell.
The time lapse from the first visible flames until the steeple fell was scarcely a quarter of an hour. It was now impossible to save more .The screams from within the church could be heard over the crackling and roaring of the flames and over the wailing and cries of those who had escaped, each screaming for his own relative trapped in the flames. And, more appalling, the walls had fallen to the ground revealing a charcoal statue of people huddled together so solid that they could not fall. Yet, a woman standing with a child in her arms was clearly visible. The flames continued until the mass statue was reduced to ashes.
In less than an hour, the Grue church had collapsed into a pile of rubble and 113 people had perished horribly. The official count included 3 farmers and fathers, 27 wives and mothers, 5 unmarried men, 42 unmarried women and 36 children under the age of fifteen.
In six days, June 1st at 10 o’clock, the saddened community of Grue and many, including dignitaries, from the surrounding area in Solør gathered around the open graves. On this leveled ground where “a few days before had been a God’s House,” now a multitude of mourners stood. Pastor Iver Hesselberg walked into the circle of mourners and up onto the pile of earth which had been removed for the graves. After a prayer, the assembled group sung “tungt siar mit hjerter bange slag (Heavy Beats My Heart.) The minister continued the service, “Never, dear fellow Christians, have I spoken at an occasion as sad as this…”
Only the remains of the tax collector, Hoegh, had been identified; they found uniform buttons, his pocket watch and saber. Hoegh was buried in his own casket in his own grave. The rest were placed in four caskets and buried in a common grave at the site where the church’s altar had once stood.
Immediately after the fire, the rumors and stories ran throughout the countryside. Questions needed answering. How had it happened? Was an individual responsible? As was to be expected, early suspicions were directed toward the old parish caretaker. He may not have been careful enough when carrying the brazier back from the husman’s cottage. However, a man who was going to church had walked behind him and a girl who had left the church upon becoming ill reported that they had not noticed any sparks flying out of the brazier. Even the minister had shared this suspicion of the caretaker but soon dismissed it believing that the man would have been alert to the strong winds that morning.
Throughout the summer, the authorities continued their investigations, interrogating between 40 and 50 people. After the caretaker left the husman’s cottage, an unknown man came requesting a bucket of water to put out a fire in the church foundation, He had a whitish bucket which was later found at the church site. One of the witnesses reported that when he came bounding out of the church after the fire broke out, he had seen a man with a whitish bucket pour water on the flames. But who he was, no one knew.
Possibly someone outside the church could have been using a burning glass thereby igniting the fire. A member of the congregation had used such a glass to light his pipe as he crossed the Glåmma in his boat but he found it in his pocket later after emerging from the burning church. A government official, one of the first to come out, had noticed neither flame or smoke but had heard a loud noise which was believed to be the steeple ripping away in the wind. Outside he noticed a flame low on the church foundation which quickly spread up the wall to the church tower. The fire could not have been started by sparks or embers but rather lightning. However, none of the witnesses had noticed lightning or thunder that clear morning.
How had it happened? This question was destined to remain forever unanswered……
Out of the ashes came the desire to build anew – new lives for the families torn apart by their tragic oss and a new church symbolic of their continuing belief in the Lord.
Footnote: The original Grue church and its adjoining cemetery had a precarious relationship with its closest neighbor, the Glomma River. In 1822, this mighty river was encroaching ever closer to the church claiming the land for its own. Subsequently, it was necessary to remove those graves that could be moved to the present site. A few decades later, the original church site was indeed lost forever to the river.
Pentecost Sunday – 26 May 1822
A presentation by Priscilla Sorknes, Eau Claire Stevne, 1992
That Sunday morning was a bright day with a lovely sun shining from the background of a clear blue sky. It had been warm, dry weather for weeks, not a raindrop anywhere. This day was no exception, but a strong wind was blowing from the southwest.
The old cruciform church with its steeple and shingle roof lay brown-black in the sunshine, tarred as it had been time after time throughout its long life. While some of the parishioners believed the old edifice to have been built much earlier, 1609 was the date on the old church tower’s north side. The minister Iver Hesselberg’s words after the fire, “God forbid that the Word which here was spoken for more than 200 years should have been in vain,” would seem to indicate his conception of the church’s age at that time.
On this particular Sunday, on their way to the church, many recalled an old prophesy that the church would be destroyed on Pentecost. As friends and relatives met while walking or riding to the church services, there were those who in jest reminded each other of it. Parishioners from the Oppakersundet farm on the west side of the Glåmma asked some who were not attending the service if perhaps they dared not go because it was Pentecost and the church would be destroyed.
Even so, friends and neighbors from the entire community were gathering at the Grue church. Gradually the church filled up. The parishioners came in through the main entrance in the west and in the door on the south side. In the north cross-arm was the sacristy which had a door in from the churchyard and one leading into the church. The altar lay toward the east opposite the main entrance and, where the northeast cross-arm met, stood the pulpit.
Just before the service was to begin, there were between 500 and 600 people gathered to hear God’s Word, “young and old, rich and poor, men, women and children.” Many of the mothers were carrying very young infants for there was to be baptism that day, on Pentecost Sunday. Many friends and relatives had arranged to gather with each other for visiting after the morning service. It was indeed a joyous day.
Through the windows, high up on the walls, there fell a thin light over the church family. Most sat down on the church’s main floor the men on the south side, the women and younger children on the north side. Many, mostly the young people, sat in the two gallery pews, (balconies); the unmarried women and servant girls were sitting in the north balcony.
Pastor Hesselberg’s sermon theme was “storm and fire as is pictured in the Holy Scriptures about the power and work of the Holy Spirit.” A few moments after the service had started, the elderly parish caretaker left through the south church door on his way to the husman’s cottage nearby. His mission was to collect embers of fire for lighting the altar candles before the communion. Since 1739, church law mandated the lighting of candles at the beginning of communion services. The embers were placed in a brazier (container) of copper alloy as was customary; originally the brazier had been a censer (vehicle for the burning of incense) from Catholic times. Appropriately, the caretaker laid ashes over the embers and put the cover on the brazier, which did have a few air holes.
After sitting awhile in the husman’s cottage, he proceeded back to the church carrying the brazier on the side sheltered by the wind. Re-entering the south entrance, he stood nearby waiting for Pastor Hesselberg to complete his sermon to the congregation.
In the meantime the minister had taken his place in the pulpit. “With imploring soul I spoke to the large congregation about the Lord’s work in Christ’s church through the power of the Holy Spirit: how as storm and fire God reprimands, comforts and inspires all who will accept God’s grace for the saving of souls. I was near to the departure of the spiritual address, when….”
The clock was then about eleven. Not a cloud in the sky; not a sign of an impending storm, but yet, suddenly, the congregation heard a loud roaring like thunder. At that moment, just as they arose from the pews in wonderment, flames and black smoke broke in through a window near the southwest corner not far from the main entrance. In screams of panic, the people rushed out of the pews for the nearest exit. Already on the south side, most of the men made their way to safety through the south door. Many, including Pastor Hesselberg, had managed to escape through windows. Those who were assisted out by them who came to help from the outside. In this way many women and a few children were brought to safely.
The last to come out the windows had partly burned clothing. Some, while they strived to come up to the windows, were dragged back down by the others who hung onto them, thus hoping to be brought to safety.
However, the women and children sitting on the north side rushed toward the sacristy door to the north; it was the farthest from the flames. Simultaneously, the unmarried women and servant girls were pushing down the flight of stairs from the north balcony on the cross-arm of the church. These stairs came down near the door leading from the sacristy. This door, as all the other doors in the church, opened inward; the passage became crammed with terrified people in such a way that the door to the sacristy could not be opened. People who had already escaped the danger tried to open the door from the outside, unsuccessfully.
The wind caught the flames with furious speed in the tinder dry wood and the church was soon full of black suffocating smoke. Screams and crying blended with the crackling of flames. The last one who got himself out the sacristy door, went on the backs and shoulders of the people who were packed together in front of the door and fell down from above through the opening which those on the outside had managed to make by force. The fire was then in the ceiling over him; right after this many had come out, the steeple fell.
The time lapse from the first visible flames until the steeple fell was scarcely a quarter of an hour. It was now impossible to save more .The screams from within the church could be heard over the crackling and roaring of the flames and over the wailing and cries of those who had escaped, each screaming for his own relative trapped in the flames. And, more appalling, the walls had fallen to the ground revealing a charcoal statue of people huddled together so solid that they could not fall. Yet, a woman standing with a child in her arms was clearly visible. The flames continued until the mass statue was reduced to ashes.
In less than an hour, the Grue church had collapsed into a pile of rubble and 113 people had perished horribly. The official count included 3 farmers and fathers, 27 wives and mothers, 5 unmarried men, 42 unmarried women and 36 children under the age of fifteen.
In six days, June 1st at 10 o’clock, the saddened community of Grue and many, including dignitaries, from the surrounding area in Solør gathered around the open graves. On this leveled ground where “a few days before had been a God’s House,” now a multitude of mourners stood. Pastor Iver Hesselberg walked into the circle of mourners and up onto the pile of earth which had been removed for the graves. After a prayer, the assembled group sung “tungt siar mit hjerter bange slag (Heavy Beats My Heart.) The minister continued the service, “Never, dear fellow Christians, have I spoken at an occasion as sad as this…”
Only the remains of the tax collector, Hoegh, had been identified; they found uniform buttons, his pocket watch and saber. Hoegh was buried in his own casket in his own grave. The rest were placed in four caskets and buried in a common grave at the site where the church’s altar had once stood.
Immediately after the fire, the rumors and stories ran throughout the countryside. Questions needed answering. How had it happened? Was an individual responsible? As was to be expected, early suspicions were directed toward the old parish caretaker. He may not have been careful enough when carrying the brazier back from the husman’s cottage. However, a man who was going to church had walked behind him and a girl who had left the church upon becoming ill reported that they had not noticed any sparks flying out of the brazier. Even the minister had shared this suspicion of the caretaker but soon dismissed it believing that the man would have been alert to the strong winds that morning.
Throughout the summer, the authorities continued their investigations, interrogating between 40 and 50 people. After the caretaker left the husman’s cottage, an unknown man came requesting a bucket of water to put out a fire in the church foundation, He had a whitish bucket which was later found at the church site. One of the witnesses reported that when he came bounding out of the church after the fire broke out, he had seen a man with a whitish bucket pour water on the flames. But who he was, no one knew.
Possibly someone outside the church could have been using a burning glass thereby igniting the fire. A member of the congregation had used such a glass to light his pipe as he crossed the Glåmma in his boat but he found it in his pocket later after emerging from the burning church. A government official, one of the first to come out, had noticed neither flame or smoke but had heard a loud noise which was believed to be the steeple ripping away in the wind. Outside he noticed a flame low on the church foundation which quickly spread up the wall to the church tower. The fire could not have been started by sparks or embers but rather lightning. However, none of the witnesses had noticed lightning or thunder that clear morning.
How had it happened? This question was destined to remain forever unanswered……
Out of the ashes came the desire to build anew – new lives for the families torn apart by their tragic oss and a new church symbolic of their continuing belief in the Lord.
Footnote: The original Grue church and its adjoining cemetery had a precarious relationship with its closest neighbor, the Glomma River. In 1822, this mighty river was encroaching ever closer to the church claiming the land for its own. Subsequently, it was necessary to remove those graves that could be moved to the present site. A few decades later, the original church site was indeed lost forever to the river.
Commemorative Biographical Record of Counties of Rock, Green, Grant, Iowa and Lafayette, Wisconsin, Containing Biographical Sketches of Prominent and Representative Citizens, and of Many of the Early Settled Families. Chicago: Beers, 1901,
Pages 255 - 256 ~ Lafayette County
REV. OLE PAULSON, the esteemed pastor of the Norwegian Lutheran Church at Blanchardville, Lafayette county, was born in Norway, April 26, 1832, and accompanied his father's family to America in 1850. For a time they made their home in Winneshiek county, Iowa, removing thence to Carver county, Minn., where the parents passed the remainder of their lives.
The opening days of the war of the Rebellion found Rev. Ole PAULSON a student in the Scandinavian Lutheran Augustana Seminary and College, at Chicago, Ill., and like many another student in the schools and colleges of the North he left his books and shouldered a musket in defense of the Union. In August, 1862, he became a member of Company H, 9th Minn. V.I., with the rank of second lieutenant, William R. BAXTER being the captain of the company. That year occurred the famous uprising of the Sioux Indians and the 9th, with other volunteer regiments, was sent to chastise the red men and prevent further depredations. Mr. PAULSON took part in Gen. Sibley's expedition in Minnesota and Dakota during the summer of 1863, and was in several battles with the savages. When the Indians were finally driven beyond the Missouri river, and
the Indian war closed, the regiment returned to Fort Snelling, and thence in the fall of 1863 proceeded to St. Louis, where it was occupied doing guard duty the following winter, from there going to Rolla, Mo. During this time the men were sent out on detached duty, and the entire regiment considerably divided. In the spring of 1864 they were again united, and proceeded to Little Rock, Ark., as Col. Wilkinson, who commanded the regiment, was ambitious to join in Gen. Sturgis' well known expedition against the Rebel Gen. Forrest, and was successful in realizing his ambition. The result of this was the somewhat famous battle of Guntown, in which the army under Sturgis was badly defeated, the expedition having been badly planned, and the battle fought at great disadvantage to the Union forces. The 9th lost heavily, Company H losing its captain and thirty men taken prisoners and placed in the noted stockade at Andersonville, Ga., where many of them perished from starvation. The next important event in which the 9th participated was at Tupelo, near Memphis, where Col. Wilkinson was killed. They also took part in the battle of Nashville and the taking of Spanish Fort. The health of Rev. Mr. PAULSON was much broken before the close of the war, and after receiving his discharge in the summer of 1864, he returned to Minnesota, being for some time too ill to resume his duties at college. When he did recover he found that the college in the meantime had been removed from Chicago to Paxton, Ill. He was graduated in 1868, and since that time has been engaged in the ministry. For six years he was pastor at Minneapolis, being the first Scandinavian Lutheran pastor in that city. After the Minneapolis charge he passed twelve years as pastor of the church at Willmar, Minn., and since Nov. 20, 1885, has been in charge at Blanchardville besides which he administers to three other congregations, namely; Argyle, Adams and York, the one at Adams being the largest. These parishes, taken collectively, number about 1,200 people. Our subject is a hard worker, and has organized some large congregations. He preaches and practices the doctrines of the universal brotherhood of man, and is greatly beloved by his parishioners, who feel that in him, indeed, they have a firm and a conscientious spiritual adviser. He has also done a large amount of literary work, being a frequent contributor to the Folkeblader, and having written some hymns of unquestioned excellence. One of his greatest desires is to see the spread of the practice of total abstinence.
In 1857 Rev. Mr. PAULSON was united in marriage with Miss Inger LOBERG, a native of Norway, and their family consists of three sons and four daughters: Alphia, Theodora, Martin Luther, Helga Otilda, Lydia Regina, Paul Gerhard, Olaf Ingvald, and Aagot Herbertha, all living. Petra Augusta and Johannes died in their infancy.
Submitted by: Carol
([email protected])
In the AUGSBURG COLLEGE AND SEMINARY Papers is a typescript of the testimony of Sven Oftedal and Ole Paulson in the court record of the United Norwegian Lutheran Church vs. Augsburg Seminary.
Carver County, Minnesota
A man by the name Axel Jørgensen from Fredrikshald, who was quite an adventurer, settled at a place where Carver City now lies, as early as 1852, but he moved away within a few years.
In 1855, there was a small company of Norwegians who settled right by the aforementioned place, namely Paul Olsen Voldberg (Valberget or Waalberget) with wife and children (among them Ole Paulson, later a priest) and Ole Hendricksen from Grue, Solør as well as Østen Gunnøvsen with his son from Tinn, Telemarken. It is also said that there were some from Lands parish. But they soon moved away and turned the area over to the Swedes. There is no Norwegian settlement in Carver County.
Pages 255 - 256 ~ Lafayette County
REV. OLE PAULSON, the esteemed pastor of the Norwegian Lutheran Church at Blanchardville, Lafayette county, was born in Norway, April 26, 1832, and accompanied his father's family to America in 1850. For a time they made their home in Winneshiek county, Iowa, removing thence to Carver county, Minn., where the parents passed the remainder of their lives.
The opening days of the war of the Rebellion found Rev. Ole PAULSON a student in the Scandinavian Lutheran Augustana Seminary and College, at Chicago, Ill., and like many another student in the schools and colleges of the North he left his books and shouldered a musket in defense of the Union. In August, 1862, he became a member of Company H, 9th Minn. V.I., with the rank of second lieutenant, William R. BAXTER being the captain of the company. That year occurred the famous uprising of the Sioux Indians and the 9th, with other volunteer regiments, was sent to chastise the red men and prevent further depredations. Mr. PAULSON took part in Gen. Sibley's expedition in Minnesota and Dakota during the summer of 1863, and was in several battles with the savages. When the Indians were finally driven beyond the Missouri river, and
the Indian war closed, the regiment returned to Fort Snelling, and thence in the fall of 1863 proceeded to St. Louis, where it was occupied doing guard duty the following winter, from there going to Rolla, Mo. During this time the men were sent out on detached duty, and the entire regiment considerably divided. In the spring of 1864 they were again united, and proceeded to Little Rock, Ark., as Col. Wilkinson, who commanded the regiment, was ambitious to join in Gen. Sturgis' well known expedition against the Rebel Gen. Forrest, and was successful in realizing his ambition. The result of this was the somewhat famous battle of Guntown, in which the army under Sturgis was badly defeated, the expedition having been badly planned, and the battle fought at great disadvantage to the Union forces. The 9th lost heavily, Company H losing its captain and thirty men taken prisoners and placed in the noted stockade at Andersonville, Ga., where many of them perished from starvation. The next important event in which the 9th participated was at Tupelo, near Memphis, where Col. Wilkinson was killed. They also took part in the battle of Nashville and the taking of Spanish Fort. The health of Rev. Mr. PAULSON was much broken before the close of the war, and after receiving his discharge in the summer of 1864, he returned to Minnesota, being for some time too ill to resume his duties at college. When he did recover he found that the college in the meantime had been removed from Chicago to Paxton, Ill. He was graduated in 1868, and since that time has been engaged in the ministry. For six years he was pastor at Minneapolis, being the first Scandinavian Lutheran pastor in that city. After the Minneapolis charge he passed twelve years as pastor of the church at Willmar, Minn., and since Nov. 20, 1885, has been in charge at Blanchardville besides which he administers to three other congregations, namely; Argyle, Adams and York, the one at Adams being the largest. These parishes, taken collectively, number about 1,200 people. Our subject is a hard worker, and has organized some large congregations. He preaches and practices the doctrines of the universal brotherhood of man, and is greatly beloved by his parishioners, who feel that in him, indeed, they have a firm and a conscientious spiritual adviser. He has also done a large amount of literary work, being a frequent contributor to the Folkeblader, and having written some hymns of unquestioned excellence. One of his greatest desires is to see the spread of the practice of total abstinence.
In 1857 Rev. Mr. PAULSON was united in marriage with Miss Inger LOBERG, a native of Norway, and their family consists of three sons and four daughters: Alphia, Theodora, Martin Luther, Helga Otilda, Lydia Regina, Paul Gerhard, Olaf Ingvald, and Aagot Herbertha, all living. Petra Augusta and Johannes died in their infancy.
Submitted by: Carol
([email protected])
In the AUGSBURG COLLEGE AND SEMINARY Papers is a typescript of the testimony of Sven Oftedal and Ole Paulson in the court record of the United Norwegian Lutheran Church vs. Augsburg Seminary.
Carver County, Minnesota
A man by the name Axel Jørgensen from Fredrikshald, who was quite an adventurer, settled at a place where Carver City now lies, as early as 1852, but he moved away within a few years.
In 1855, there was a small company of Norwegians who settled right by the aforementioned place, namely Paul Olsen Voldberg (Valberget or Waalberget) with wife and children (among them Ole Paulson, later a priest) and Ole Hendricksen from Grue, Solør as well as Østen Gunnøvsen with his son from Tinn, Telemarken. It is also said that there were some from Lands parish. But they soon moved away and turned the area over to the Swedes. There is no Norwegian settlement in Carver County.