Innleiing
Pioneremigrantane frå dei øvre
telemarksbygdene var av dei mest dominerande talmessig i tida før
masseutvandringa frå Norge. Likevel finn vi ikkje så mange
enkeltpersonar herfrå som har markert seg i denne historiske tida.
Nokre blir kjende som leiarar av emigrantgrupper (Rue og Luraas). Ein
markerer seg som påverkande brevskrivar (Olav Trovatn). Ein blei
landets mest kjende postmann (Snowshoe-Thompson). Ein raulending skal
visstnok ha vore med på å slå i hel Joseph Smith, grunnleggaren av
mormonerkyrkja, og dyktige handverkarar og forfattarar fanst. Ein blei
kongressmann (Kittil Halvorsen Kjeldahl), og mange ofra liv og helse
for det nye landet sitt i borgarkrigen.To jamaldringar, heddølen Nils
Johnson Kaasa og saulendingen Ole Andresson Aasen, blei foregangsmenn
i kyrkjeleg organisasjonsarbeid dei første åra. Sistnemnde skal vi
bli nærmare kjent med her. Ole Andresson Aasen, eller Ole Andrewson
som han heitte i USA, er ofte nemnd mellom anna i E.Clifford Nelson og
Eugene L.Fevolds "The Lutheran Church among
Norwegian-Americans" (Minneapolis Augsburg Vol.1 1960), sjølve
standardverket om norsk-amerikansk kyrkjehistorie. Likevel treng han
ei fyldigare omtale.
Som husmannsgut frå ei lita Telemarksbygd hadde han
begrensa teologisk utdanning. Men med sunt bondevett og papir på at
han var godkjent prest, måtte han i vaksen alder ofte konfrontere
universitetsutdanna norske prestar som hadde generasjonar av
intellektuelle embetsmenn bak seg i slekta.
Det var bare tre personar som blei ordinert til
norske prestar i USA før Ole: Haugianaren Elling Eielsen, den
"moderate" dansken C.L.Clausen og den kompromisslause
statskyrkjepresten J.W.C.Dietrichson. Sjølv om han må regnast som
ein biperson saman med desse, er Ole sentral i den svært kompliserte
norskamerikanske kyrkjehistoria. Frå 1842 til han døydde i 1885, var
han eit viktig element i å tilpasse det norske immigrantsamfunnet til
eit amerikansk kyrkjeliv. Dette var eit krevande nybrottsarbeid. For
den norske kyrkja, som meir eller mindre blei med over, var ikkje grei
bagasje å pakke opp i det nye landet. Noko var kanskje øydelagt alt
på reisa og ved ankomsten. Noko viste det seg at var ubrukeleg i det
nye samfunnet og heller skulle vore lagt att heime. Oles jobb blei å
hjelpe immigrantane med å pakke ut og ta vare på dei rette tinga,
samtidig som også nye saker måtte skaffast der dei kom.
Artikkelen vil følge Ole frå beskjedne
oppvekstkår i ein enkel husmannsheim, gjennom ei typisk emigrantreise
i tidlegaste pionertid, der han kan representere dei hundretals
første telemarksemigrantane. Etterkvart blir han ein aktiv deltakar i
amerikansk kyrkjehistorie, der han får betydning for tusenvis av
immigrantar. På denne måten får vi gjennom livet hans eit blikk inn
i kyrkjehistoria i det norske Amerika fram til 1880-talet.
Bakgrunn, bustad og familie
Tidleg på 1800-talet blei det rydda ein plass under
garden Myljom-Bø i Sauland. Plassen fekk namnet Åsen og låg nokre
hundre meter ovanfor garden, oppunder Kleppefjell ved vegen til
Tuddal. Heile Bøgrenda høyrde på denne tida til ein rik
trelasthandlar som heitte Jens Ørn, så bebuarane i grenda var
leiglendingar og husmenn.
På Åsen var det husmannen Andres Tollevson som
dreiv i åra rundt 1820, kanskje var det han sjølv som hadde rydda og
bygd plassen. Han var fødd i 1766 og blei gift med Ingebjørg
Olsdatter. Henne klarer vi ikkje å identifisere nærmare. Dersom
fødselsåret er rett, var Andres heile 50 år da første barnet,
dottera Kari, blei fødd i 1816. 2.mars 1818 kom sonen Ole, i 1821 kom
Anne og i 1825 Helge (jentenamn, uttalast Hælge - med tjukk L), i
1828 Tollev, og i 1833 Ingebjørg som døydde samme året.
Anne blei gift med Hans Larsson Skårset og Helge
med Ola Kjetilson Nord-Listul. Tollev kom truleg etter til Amerika.
Dei to eldste blei av dei mange saulendingane blant dei aller
tidlegaste pionerane i historia om utvandringa til USA.
Kari skal ifølge "Hjartdalsoga" ha gift
seg i 1841 med Halvor Torbjørnsen Omnes og utvandra samme år, men
det er truleg samanblanding med Torkel Bjørnson Omnes f.1820. (Vi
finn Torkel Bjørnson på same båt som Kari, men dei er ikkje
registrert som ektefolk der. Hjartdalsoga seier at Torkel også er
gift med ei Kari Andresdatter f.1815. Halvor Torbjørnsen finn vi
ikkje på passasjerlister i denne tida).
Dette kunne vore eit godt gifte for husmannsjenta,
for Omnes var av dei større gardane i bygda. Men det var ikkje nokon
odelsgut ho blei gift med, og løysinga blei dermed utvandring. Ole og
systera reiste, og vi må tru at dei såg for seg ei betre framtid i
eit nytt land.
Som eit av mange barn i ein fattig husmannsfamilie,
måtte Ole tidleg ut i arbeid og var gjetargut i fleire år. Men folk
i bygda må ha merkt seg denne guten og dei boklege evnene han må ha
vist. Vi får tru det var presten Finkenhagen som såg til at han kom
på "Kosa-skulen" i Brunkeberg. Dette seminaret i Kviteseid
var forløparen til lærarutdanninga i Telemark, og der gjekk fleire
kjende menn gjennom tida skulen eksisterte. Knud Gislesen Løkslid,
ein kjent skulemann, prest og biskop frå Hjartdal hadde gått der.
Olav K.Trovatn frå Øyfjell, som utvandra og blei ein kjend
brevskrivar, gjekk der. Og omlag samstundes med Ole gjekk Aasmund
Olavson Vinje på same skulen
Korleis Ole kunne få råd til å gå der, veit vi
ikkje. Men han gjennomførde utdanninga og kom i arbeid som
omgangsskulelærar i heimbygda. Dette dreiv han med frå 1838 til
1841.
Denne oppvakte unge mannen følgde nok godt med i
alt snakk som var om Amerika i den tida. Det gjorde sikkert eit sterkt
intrykk på folk at 36 Hjartdølar i 1839 reiste frå heimbygda og til
Amerika, ei reise folk knapt kunne tenke seg omfanget av. Og dette
blei ikkje eit eingongsfenomen heller, for året etter, i 1840, gjorde
Anund og Aslaug Uvås med fire born samme turen.
Det blei fort kjent i bygda at folk kom vel fram, og
at det var jord og framtid for mange fleire i dette landet. Denne
store tidlege utvandringa frå Hjartdalsbygdene var inspirert av
Tinnutvandringa i 1837 og numedølen Ansten Nattestad. Ole var kanskje
av dei som skaffa seg trykte beretningar om emigrasjon, og kunne lese
og formidle til andre nyttig kunnskap om det dei kunne oppnå. Han kan
ha fått tak i Ole Rynnings "Sandferdig Beretning om
Amerika", som Nattestad fekk trykt i 1838.
Barken Emilie, som Uvås-familien hadde reist med
frå Drammen om Gøteborg til New York, skulle sommaren 1841 gå samme
ruta. Dermed blei vinteren og våren 1841 ei uroleg tid i Hjartdal og
Sauland. Det var mange som la alvorlege planar om utvandring, og da
kaptein Thomas Anchersen på ettersommaren førde "Emilie"
ut frå Drammen havn, var det 92 passasjerar med. Av desse var heile
27 frå Hjartdal og Sauland. Mellom passasjerane var Ole og systera
Kari. Der var også Lonar-, Skårnes-, Skårdal- og Bøe-folk frå
Sauland, så dei hadde nok av kjenningar med på reisa. Resten av
passasjerane var også landkrabbar - frå Sigdal og Numedal og frå
fleire bygder i Øvre Telemark. I det heile emigrerte 169 frå heile
landet det året. Nokre få var frå Voss, elles var alle frå dei
nemnde bygdene.
Kaptein Anchersen, som sjølv eigde
"Emilie", var ein dreven sjømann. Han kunne vere vel
dristig til å overlaste det 150 år gamle skipet med passasjerar, men
til gjengjeld tok han seg godt av dei. Han hadde med medisinar mot dei
vanlegaste sjukdomane, og han heldt gudstenester om søndagane og
religiøse samlingar elles. Han ordna også med vidare transport
innover i USA.
Skipet kom til New York 5.august, etter ca 10 veker
på sjøen. Deretter følgde den vanlege reiseruta opp Hudson River
til Albany nord for New York. Herfrå fortsette reisa på lasteprammar
langs Eriekanalen til Buffalo ved Eriesjøen, og vidare over dei store
sjøane til Milwaukee eller Chicago.
I samme reisefølge var det ein familie frå ytre
Hjartdal. Det var Torgun Haraldsdatter Tveiten, som hadde med seg to
døtre frå eit tidlegare ekteskap, Ragnhild og Anne Paulsdatter,
døtrer av Paul (Pål) Jonson Aasen. Den nye mannen i familien var
Johannes Olsen frå Heddal. Ein dag fall den 17 år gamle Ragnhild
overbord frå kanalbåten. Ole presterte da å redde jenta, og
sjølvsagt er det den samme Ragnhild som han blir gift med eit par år
seinare, fortel oldebarnet til Ole, Frederic Rognald Matson.
Arbeid og ekteskap i Wisconsin
Ole kom altså til Wisconsin i 1841 og skaffa seg
gardsarbeid i Racine county. Dette vil seie at han må ha halde til i,
eller i nærleiken av Muskego-settlementet. Dette er velkjent frå
emigranthistoria, men her er ein kort repetisjon:
Cleng Peerson førde dei første norske emigrantane
i 1825 til Kendall i staten New York og seinare til Fox River-området
sørvest for Chicago i Illinois. Denne retningen tok også dei første
emigrantane frå Austlandet, dvs. Rue-følget i 1837. Da
Lurås-følget i 1839 kom til Milwaukee, blei dei nærmast lurte til
å slå seg ned på landet ved sjøen Muskego i sør-aust Wisconsin,
lenger nord enn dei tidlegare emigrantane. Trass i mange vanskar, blei
Muskego eit nytt utgangspunkt som markerte retninga for ny settling i
retning vest og nord, vidare i Wisconsin og mot Minnesota og
Dakotaterritoriet. Når i tillegg Nattestad og sambygdingane hans frå
Numedal slo seg til på Jefferson Prairie litt lenger vest i
Wisconsin, markerer dette slutten på Cleng Peersons styring av
utvandringa.
For ein fattig nykommar som Ole, var gardsarbeidet
sikraste levebrødet. Men etterkvart som han fekk etablert seg,
skjøna han at det var bruk for dei "akademiske" evnene han
hadde. Om han hadde hatt planar om å bli ein kyrkjas mann, veit vi
ikkje, men etter ei sterk religiøs omvendingsoppleving i 1842, ser
han dette klart. Han startar ei karriere som lekpredikant, dei første
åra i Racine county.
1843 blei også eit viktig år for Ole. 29.juni
gifte han seg med Ragnhild. Ho var fødd 23.mai 1824 og levde heilt
til 1918. Paret kom til å få seks døtrer og fem søner. Alle utanom
yngste sonen kom til å vekse opp. Ragnhilds namn blei amerikanisert
til Rachel. Dermed beheldt ho forbokstavane frå Norge og skaffa seg
samtidig eit namn i sterk bibelsk tradisjon.
Starten på eit liv i kyrkjas
teneste - til Jefferson Prairie
I fire år dreiv Ole som lekpredikant. I samband med
dette må han ha møtt haugianarleiaren Elling Eielsen. Samtidig kom
han igang med farming og må ha lese og studert alt han hadde
anledning til, ikkje minst skulle han lære språket.
I 1844 flytte han til Jefferson Prairie-settlementet
og kom til å bu litt sør for småbyen Clinton i Rock county heilt
sør i Wisconsin. Han slo seg ned på ein farm og var lærar og
framleis predikant.
Første dottera blei fødd samme året, og namnet
blei Isabelle, ei oppkalling etter Oles mor, Ingeborg. Isabelle fekk
ei betydeleg rolle i samfunnet, særleg som kona til Canute Matson,
sheriff i Chicago i ei svært dramatisk tid i 1880-åra, men det er ei
annan historie.
Jefferson Prairie er, som Muskego, svært viktig i
denne tidlege utvandringshistoria. Det var her grunnleggarane av
utvandringa frå Øvre Telemark og Numedal - Ole og Ansten Nattestad
frå Rollag - slo seg ned. Ansten var heimatt i 1838-39 og
"henta" ei stor mengd nye emigrantar, ved hjelp av eigen
agitasjon og boka "Sandferdig Beretning om Amerika" av Ole
Rynning. Manuskriptet hadde han med, og fekk trykt boka i Oslo. I
mellomtida fann broren Ole fram til Jefferson Prairie. Dit drog også
ein stor del av følget til Ansten, mest numedølar, i 1839, medan dei
frå Øvre Telemark slo seg til i Muskego.
I "History of Clinton, Rock county" står
det om Ole at "he went to a seminary for three years". Det
er ingenting elles som tyder på at Ole tok slik utdanning i USA, så
det er nok rett og slett seminaret i Kviteseid som var Oles bakgrunn
og ikkje annan formell teologisk utdanning.
Men prest blei han. O.J.Hatlestad, ein mangeårig
prestekollega skriv: "…Da kristelige Venner i Illinois og
Wisconsin bleve opmærksomme paa de Naadegaver, som Gud havde betroet
O.Andrewson, blev han 1846 kaldet til Præst i LaSalle co., Illinois…"
I pionermenighetane såg folk på offisiell
ordinasjon som svært viktig, særleg med omsyn til utføringa av
nattverden. Sjølv om mange immigrantar var letta over å komme vekk
frå alt som heitte prestar og religion, var det blant andre tungt
sakn av prestar i den første tida.
Som den fjerde presten mellom nordmennene blei Ole
ordinert. Han starta med førebels årlege lisensar frå eit
amerikansk luthersk kyrkjesamfunn. Etter å ha amerikanisert namnet
sitt, var han dermed Rev. Ole Andrewson, og kom snart til å stå midt
i det teologiske virvaret som det norske Amerika må ha vore i nesten
100 år. Ein kan få inntrykk av at mest all intellektuell kapasitet
mellom norske lærde dreide seg om diskusjonar og konflikter i
teologiske lærespørsmål. "Et aandelig Humlebol" er eit
uttrykk som er brukt. Mange ulike kyrkjesamfunn eller synodar blei
oppretta og nedlagt, splitta og samla - som vi skal sjå etterkvart.
Kyrkjesplitting lokalt - og
over heile det norske USA
Med å slå seg ned i Jefferson Prairie, plasserer
Ole Andrewson seg, også geografisk, midt i den striden som tok til å
oppstå i kyrkjelivet mellom nordmennene i USA. Alt i 1844 hadde folk
i Jefferson Prairie delt seg i to kyrkjelege leirar, etterkvart med
kvar si kyrke - East Church og West Church. Alt her ser vi dei to
hovudlinene i norskamerikansk luthersk kyrkjetradisjon:
Den eine sida hadde som mål å føre den norske
statskyrkja vidare i USA. Første drivkrafta i dette var den
universitetsutdanna norske presten J.W.C Dietrichson (1815-1883), som
kom til USA i 1844. Dette måtte bli vanskeleg, for store delar av det
tidlegaste emigrantfolket hadde som eit av måla med utvandring å
komme unna denne sterkt embetsmannstyrte norske kyrkja, med stor vekt
på ytre og formalistiske ting. Men andre ønskte dennne tradisjonelle
kyrkjeautoriteten som dei var vane med. Og etter mykje om og men, blei
så kyrkjesamfunnet - Den norske synode - grunnlagt i 1853 i eit møte
på Rock Prairie, ikkje langt frå Clinton. Seinare blei Koshkonong,
det store norske settlementet litt lenger nord, hovudbase for
Dietrichson.
Eit av læreproblema for denne "norske
statskyrkja" i USA utvikla seg seinare da mange av prestane
skulle utdannast i St.Louis i Missouri, ein stat der slaveri var
tillatt. Påverknad derifrå, og ei svært bokstavtru bibeltolking,
førde til at denne kyrkja faktisk ikkje greidde å ta klart og
utvetydig avstand frå slaveriet i tiåra som følgde. Vi høyrer
ikkje om at nokon av prestane var for slaveriet, debatten gjekk på om
slaveriet bibelsk/teologisk var "synd i og for seg".
På motsett side stod frå første stund
lekmannsrørsla/haugianismen svært sterkt mellom norske immigrantar.
Haugerørsla braut aldri med den offisielle lutherske kyrkja, men
verka som ein folkeleg opposisjon innanfor denne. I USA blei Elling
Eielsen, som kom frå Voss i 1839, den som kom til å vidareføre
denne lina. Også han blei ordinert til luthersk prest - i 1843.
Eielsen var omtrent alltid på reiser, men Jefferson Prairie var
hovudbasen hans mesteparten av livet.
Ole Andrewson var frå først av ein tilhengar av
Eielsen og kjent med han frå Muskego/Racine. Det kan ha vore i
samråd med Eielsen at Ole drog til Jefferson Prairie. I alle fall
blir han sentral i "West"-kyrkja der. Historikaren Flom
seier at han grunnla menigheten der, men det var først i 1850.
I 1846 blir det arrangert eit historisk møte i
Jefferson Prairie. Tilstades er Elling Eielsen, Paul Anderson - ein
radikal prest frå Valdres, Ole Andrewson, og "en del af de vidt
adspredte troende". Her grunnlegg dei "The Evangelical
Lutheran Church of America", oftast kalla "Eielsens
Synode", i april 1846. På møtet fungerte Andrewson som
sekretær. "Jeg dikterte og Andrewsen skrev", fortel Eielsen
om korleis vedtektene for organisasjonen kom istand. Eielsens Synode
var altså ein realitet sju år før "Den Norske Synode"
blei endeleg organisert.
Brot med Eielsen - og
tilnærming til amerikansk kyrkjeliv
I 1853 var altså dei to hovudlinene i
norsk-amerikansk kyrkjeorganisering nedfelte i kvar sin synode. Men
innan den tid hadde Andrewson og fleire andre gått sine eigne vegar.
Elling Eielsen var ikkje ein mann med sans for
organisasjonsarbeid. Kristus førde ikkje protokoll da han gjekk rundt
på jorda, uttalde han ein gong. Han var dessutan svært
"norsk" i grunnsynet sitt, mangla samarbeidsevner og var
generelt konservativ. Snart såg Andrewson, Anderson og ein tredje ung
og radikal prest, Ole J.Hatlestad, at tida var inne for å bryte ut av
Eielsens synode. Dette skjedde på eit møte i Middlepoint (Fox
River), Illinois i 1848. Andrewson var igjen sekretær og kalla inn
til møtet. "Man forhandlede 1) om Klagemaal mod E.Eielsen 2) om
intrædelse i Franckean Synoden".
På møtet las Andrewson opp eit langt
"synderegister" mot Eielsen. Meir konkret om innhaldet er
det vanskeleg å finne, men uttrykk som slapphet og uorden blei brukt.
Elles var det nok generelle samarbeidsproblem som låg bak, sjølv om
det også kunne gå ein del meir banale rykte om ein person som
Eielsen. I alle fall enda det med at Eielsen "grep hatten og
forlot møtet".
Eielsen og tilhengarane kom til å arbeide vidare i
Eielsens Synode, medan dei andre drog seg ut og slutta seg til den
tysk-amerikanske såkalla Franckeanarsynoden, som hadde base i New
York. Det var særleg Paul Anderson som hadde skaffa seg kjennskap til
amerikansk kyrkjeliv. Han hadde utdanning frå eit seminar i Beloit,
ein litt større by ikkje langt frå Clinton. Likevel var det altså
Andrewson som blei ordinert til presteteneste først, nettopp i dette
franckeanar-samfunnet.
Franckeanarane var lutherske og pietistiske, men
liberale, for ikkje å seie likegyldige, i lærespørsmål. Det var
plass for norsk "børnelærdom" innanfor organisasjonen. For
Andrewson og dei andre var det særleg viktig at Franckeanarane var
sterkt imot slaveriet. Her ser vi altså eit initiativ til deltaking i
amerikansk kyrkjeliv og samfunnsdebatt frå representantar for norske
immigrantar. Dette er ikkje så ofte vektlagt. Heltane er oftast dei
som vil ta vare på norsk levemåte i det nye landet. Men det er
amerikaniseringa som vinn fram litt etter litt etter som tida går.
Kontakten med amerikansk kristenliv kom også
gjennom "American Home Mission Society", eit misjonsselskap
i Chicago som støtta misjonsarbeidet mellom innvandrarar generelt.
Bak dette selskapet sto dei presbyterianske og kongregasjonalistiske
kyrkjene. Dette var ganske folkelege og demokratiske kyrkjesamfunn.
Paul Anderson og Andrewson, oppretta med hjelp frå dette selskapet,
den første norske og skandinaviske kyrkja i Chicago i 1848.
Dette selskapet støtta arbeidet til både Andrewson
og Anderson i desse åra. For 50 dollar i kvartalet blei det kravd
skrivne rapportar, 30 slike manuskript etter Andrewson finst i
selskapets arkiv frå åra 1852-58. Her fortel han om kva han har å
kjempe med i gjerninga si: Likegyldighet, overtru, formalisme, og
konkurrerande trusretningar. Heile tida sto kampen mot det ekstreme
på begge sider: Amerikansk "Revivalism", dvs. mormonarar og
andre sekter på eine sida, og konservative, formalistiske norske
synode-prestar på andre. Mormonisme og fanatisme hadde herja som ein
præriebrann i Fox River, skreiv han ved ein anledning.
I "Hjartdalssoga" står det at han ein
periode (frå 1856) fekk fast løn for å halde minst 36 preiker i
året for kyrkjesamfunna i Wisconsin og Illinois. Dette må også ha
vore i samband med arbeidet for American Home Mission Society.
Det var Andrewson som først fekk trykt ei norsk
salmebok i Amerika. Dette var ei utgåve på 784 sider av Harboe og
Guldbergs Salmebok. Ei stund redigerte og trykte han også bladet
"Norsk luthersk kirketidende" som han håpte "ved Guds
velsignelse skulle vise seg å vere til nytte mellom landsmennene
mine". Som prest, og i stor grad misjonær, var han også moralsk
vegleiar, alltid i kamp mot alkohol, banning, søndagsarbeid og andre
laster. Det er nemnt i fleire kilder at alkoholmisbruk var særleg
utbreidd mellom mange av dei første norske immigrantane. Dette var
eit stort samfunnsproblem også heime i Norge, men organisert
avhaldsarbeid retta etterkvart på dette både heime i Norge og mellom
nordmennene i Amerika.
I denne perioden, fortel F.R.Matson, at Andrewson
opplevde å sjå ein stor flokk av Illinois-menigheta si dra samla til
Iowa. Dette kan ha vore i samband med metodisten Nils Johnson Kaasa
frå Heddal - og grunnlegginga av Washington Prairie-settlementet i
Chickasaw co. med byen Decorah.
Ole er også med i skuledebatten. Nordmennene var
ikkje fornøgde med den religionsfrie offisielle amerikanske skulen,
og oppretta iblant eigne skular. Andrewson såg heile tida verdien av
at barna gjekk på amerikansk skule, men godtok også ein lokal
"norsk" skule, sålenge det ikkje gjekk utover den
offisielle skulen.
Presteteneste
I 1847-48, da han som nyordinert prest framleis
samarbeidde med Eielsen, var Ole i LaSalle co. i Illinois. Han
organiserte menighetar i Indian Creek, Leland, Fox River, Lisbon og
Mission Point. Dette var i området der nordmenn hadde slått seg ned
så tidleg som i 1834-35, leia av Cleng Peerson.
I 1851 blei han igjen kalla til Racine county, og
han betjente menighetane i Muskego, Racine (by) og Milwaukee ein
toårsperiode.
Etter det var han tre år i Fox River, LaSalle
county, der han reiste rundt og arbeidde i mange menighetar - som
såkalla circuit rider minister - for så å slå seg meir fast ned i
Clinton/Jefferson Prairie frå 1856. Han kjøpte nå eigen farm 3
miles sør for byen og hadde heimen sin der resten av livet, med
unntak av eit par år i Leland, LaSalle county i 1875-76.
Han betjente The Evangelical Lutheran Church i
Clinton og budde 3 miles sør for byen. (Huset hans ved Highway 140
brann i seinare tid.) Han var dermed tilbake i si gamle West Church,
som også fekk nytt kyrkjebygg på denne tida. Ole kjøpte forresten
den tidlegare kyrkja. Vi veit ikkje kva han gjorde med den, men
trevirket er framleis i bruk i heimen til etterkommarar (Mike Ligmans).
Samtidig med at Andrewson var engasjert i
kyrkjelivet og teologiske debattar på høgt nivå, var det altså som
vanleg menighetsprest han gjorde si daglege teneste.
Som prest var det lite løn å få, for folk var
fattige, og han måtte drive med mykje praktisk arbeid for å
underhalde den veksande familien. Nå var ikkje dette noko som skremde
den tidlegare gjetarguten og gardskaren, og som Hatlestad seier:
"Han arbeidede ufortrødent til Guds Ære og Sjæles
frelse".
Ein kan spørje seg korleis menneske har kapasitet
til alt dette arbeidet, særleg utan våre dagars
kommunikasjonsmiddel. Rachels innsats må ein regne med låg bak heile
tida og gjorde Oles arbeid mulig. Ho bar fram 10 barn mellom 1844 og
1867. Påkjenninga da yngste sonen døydde i 1870 måtte ho, som
middelaldrande kvinne, også leve igjennom. Samtidig tok ho seg av
arbeidet med hus, heim og barn. Ho var svært streng i
oppdragargjerninga, men alltid rettferdig - og ho var ikkje utan sans
for humor.
Truleg sto ho for mykje av gardsdrifta også, for
det ser ut til at farming heile tida blei drive parallelt med alt det
andre. Farmen blei etterkvart på den vanlege størrelsen - 160 acres.
Og vi veit at dei alltid måtte slite økonomisk. Veldig mykje av tida
må Ole ha vore på reiser mellom dei ulike menighetane han var knytt
til.
Rachel måtte drive med alt av typisk kvinnearbeid
for si tid, heilt til dei siste åra. Ikkje minst arbeidde ho med
dyrking av lin. Ho gjorde alt frå å så frøa til å veve dei
ferdige linplagga.
Det blir til og med fortalt av Hatlestad at Ole
kosta reise til Amerika for den gamle mor si og ein helselaus bror, og
at "…i hans Hus nød de Pleie og sorgfritt Ophold til sin
Død".
Barna til Rachel og Ole var: 1.Isabella f.1844
d.1909, Paul f.1846 d.1918, Andrew f.1848 d.1931, Anne Turina f.1851
d.1936, Oliver f.1853 d.1926, Carolina f.1855 d.1942, Hellen Rebecca
f.1857 d.1937, Anne Lovisa f.1859 d.1932, Emma Chaterina f.1862
d.1921, Henry f.1864 d.1954, Oscar Norman f.1867 d.1870.
Rachel døydde i 1918, 94 år gammal.
Nye splittingar og nye
kyrkjesamfunn
Etter tre år i Franckeanarsynoden fann Anderson,
Andrewson og Hatlestad tida inne til å trekke seg. Saman med
engelske, svenske og norske lutheranarar danna dei nå i 1851 Nordre
Illinois Synoden. Dei avsluttar dermed forbindelsen til
Franckeanarsamfunnet, som dei vel hadde regna med ville bli eit
mellomspel. Dei såg nå at det var nødvendig med ein klarare
luthersk teologi. I Nordre Illinois Synoden blei Andrewson endeleg
ordinert, etter fleire år med tidsbegrensa lisensar.
Dette blei også eit mellomspel, for i 1860 drog
skandinavane, leia av dei samme tre prestane, seg ut og danna Den
Skandinaviske Augustana-synode. Namnet understrekar enda meir vekt på
ortodoks lutherdom. Men striden var mykje omkring presteutdanninga.
Omsider hadde nordmennene i Amerika eit
kyrkjesamfunn med noko tyngde, i tomrommet mellom Den norske synode og
Eielsens Synode. Den skandinaviske Augustana-synode samla 17 prestar
og 36 menighetar. Eigen presteskule blei også oppretta - her blei det
utskild ei "norsk" avdeling, Augsburg seminary, i 1869.
Dette samfunnet kom ikkje til å samarbeide med dei
andre etablerte lutherske kyrkjesamfunna. Og det kom heller ikkje til
å forbli samla. At presteutdanninga var skilt ut var ein ting. I
tillegg var det nye innvandrarar, inspirert av Gisle Johnsons teologi,
som førte til at dei norske i 1870 trekte seg ut for å danne sin
eigen synode.
Dette skjedde "efter vennskapelig
overenskomst" med svenskane. Men Andrewson og nokre andre var
ikkje glade for denne delinga. Etter mange år som
"amerikanar", ser han påverknad frå eit meir moderne Norge
som framandt. Det er eit skriv frå Andrewson, Jefferson Circular, som
understrekar motsetnadane som frå første stund finst i den nye
organisasjonen.
På årsmøtet der delinga skulle gjennomførast,
bad han om å få stå i den svenske avdelinga, noko han ikkje fekk
lov til.. Dette kunne tyde på at han nå som eldre mann viser ei
trassig og stivbeint haldning, men det er nok heller ein demonstrasjon
- eit nytt teikn på motvilje mot å organisere seg på for nærsynt,
norsk grunnlag. Reaksjonen frå møtet er å "venligt
formane" dei motvillige til å bli med i den nye synoden.
På fleire møte prøver ein å komme til enighet i
den nye synoden, utan å lykkast. Den danske pionerpresten frå
Muskego, C.L.Clausen, blir nå ein sentral person i diskusjonen. Han
endar som president for eit fleirtal som bryt ut. Dette fleirtalet kom
til å kalle seg "Den norsk-danske Konferentse", og blei eit
av dei betydelegaste kyrkjesamfunna mot slutten av 1800-talet i det
norske USA. Sjølv om Konferentsen heller ikkje unngjekk avskaling og
splitting, blei den ein periode det sterkaste alternativet til den
konservative norske synoden. På mange måtar var
"Konferensen" på line med nye politisk liberale straumdrag
heime i Norge, som venstrepolitikk og generell nasjonal og demokratisk
utvikling. At ordet dansk var med i namnet, kom av at Clausen
opprinneleg var frå Danmark, og at eit lita gruppe danskar mellom
immigrantane skulle kjenne seg heime.
Andrewson blei att i eit heller beskjedent
mindretal. Han fekk mellom andre med seg sin gamle samarbeidspartnar
Hatlestad og ein annan som hadde følgt han frå Franckeanartida,
Andreas Aslaksen Scheie.
Nå ser vi også ei generasjonsmotsetjing. Yngre,
dynamiske og velutdanna prestar dominerte i Konferentsen. Andrewson og
fleire med han, mangla den formelle akademiske bakgrunnen og den meir
moderne stilen som nå blei rådande. Og sjølv om vi har definert
Andrewson-kretsen som radikal, så var dette på det teologiske og
organisasjonsmessige planet, i forhold til Dietrichsons stivna
statskyrkjeformer og Eielsens fundamentalistiske haugianisme. I
haldning til adiafora - dans, drikk, spel mv. - var han klart
konservativ. Det er mellom anna dette han understreka i
"Jefferson Circular", som førde han på kollisjonskurs med
dei seinare konferents-prestane.
Trass i Andrewsons amerikanske haldning, var det
hans organisasjon som kom til å gå under namnet "Den norske
Augustanasynoden". Andrewson var sjølv øvste leiar frå 1880 og
hadde mellom anna som oppgåve å ordinere nye prestar. I 1883 hadde
synoden 21 prestar og 55 menighetar. Totalt var det 310 lutherske
prestar og 1185 menighetar mellom norskamerikanarane på den tida.
Over halvparten tilhøyrde "Den norske synode" (statskyrkjesynoden).
Andrewson arbeidde dei siste åra meir og meir for
samling av norske kyrkjesamfunn. Mellom anna prøvde han å få istand
ei forening med haugianarane. Men som det står i Berghs
kyrkjehistorie: "...der var den skjønneste Harmoni i alt
undtagen det at en af Augustanasynodens prester, O.Andrewson, havde
nogle Tanker om det tusenaarige Rige, som forkom Hauges Folk adskillig
betænkelige. Sagen var nok den, at Hauges Synode ikke var meget
interesseret i denne Forening."
Innanfor Konferentsen, og mellom denne og Den norske
Synode (statskyrkjesynoden), fortsette motsetningane, og ei samla
"Norwegian-Lutheran Church in America", såg ikkje dagens
lys før 9.juni 1917. Etter dette går amerikaniseringa sin gang,
kanskje meir i tråd med Ole Andrewsons idear. "Norwegian"
blei sløyfa i namnet frå 1946, og etterkvart samarbeidde ein for
fullt med andre lands lutherske kyrkjer. I 1988 var det endeleg ei
samla Evangelical Lutheran Church i Amerika.
To saulendingar
På sine mange reiser rundt i Illinois og Wisconsin
kom Andrewson fleire gonger til Muskego. Der trefte han på ein
tidlegare kjenning og sambygding. Dette var Halvor Nelson Lonar.
Syskena hans hadde vore på "Emilie" samman med Ole. Halvor
hadde frå første stund gjort seg gjeldande i dette nybyggarstrøket.
Han hadde hatt hand om tømrararbeidet da kyrkja der, den første
norske kyrkja i Amerika, blei bygd i 1844. Nå var han farmar, og
dreiv både med treskjæring og tømring på si. Og han var aktiv i
samfunnslivet, ja, han hadde vore nære på å bli vald både til
sheriff og skrivar der i den norske nybygda.
Det finst ei historie om da Halvor, som var
enkemann, skulle gifte seg på nytt. Det blir fortalt at han ikkje
kunne godta Andrewson, presten med Franckeanarsynet, sjølv om det var
ein sambygding. Ja, Andrewson gjekk til og med under namnet Ola
Saulending. (Nå blei det likevel bryllup, for Halvor hadde ein
medhjelpar i treskinga, og denne hadde juridisk utdanning og kunne gje
Halvor og den nye kona ei godkjent borgarleg vigsle).
Heile historia om bryllaupet er skreven ned i
Telesoga (eit blad for Telelaget i Amerika) og er lagt til 1862. Ho
fortel oss at farmarane kunne ha klare syn i kyrkjedebatten. Sjølv om
kveiteprisane var det vanlegaste samtaleemnet, må vi tru at
diskusjonane om kyrkjelege spørsmål kunne gå høgt, både ute på
"fielden" og i festlege lag, særleg mellom dei meir
samfunnsengasjerte norske immigrantane.
Det korte mellomspelet i Franckeanarsynoden var i
det heile ei belastning for Andrewson og dei andre. Det tok lang tid
før kollegaer og lekfolk innsåg at dei var ganske tradisjonelle og
moderate prestar, som hadde hatt bruk for ei amerikansk kyrkjeleg
tilknyting den gongen det ikkje fanst noko norsk alternativ.
Ikkje lenge før han døydde, hadde Ole vore i
Chicago på eit synodemøte, eit fellesmøte der arbeid for forening
var det sentrale. Der pådrog han seg ein alvorleg forkjølelse som
svekka motstandskrafta hans mot nyrebetennelsen (Bright’s disease)
som han leid av. Ole Andrewson døydde 23.februar 1885 - kl.2 om
dagen.
I begravelsen 1.mars var det ein stor skare av
venner, slektningar og kjende med. Enka Rachel, som nå var 60 år, og
alle dei ti barna stilte sjølvsagt opp. Det kom folk frå dei mange
menighetane der han var kjend, og fleire prestar hadde innstillt
gudstenestene sine den dagen for å vere med i gravferda som foregjekk
i hans eigen menighet i Jefferson Prairie.
O.J.Hatlestad, som var med i begravelsen, skreiv
også minneord om han i Decorahposten 18.mars. Han sluttar med å
referere frå seremonien:
Den avdøde Broders egen Menighed besørgede hans
Begravelse. Pastor Rasmussen talte i Sørgehuset; i Kirken leste
Pastor Omland et Afsnit af Guds Ord og holdt Bøn. Undertegnede talte
da over Philip.1,21. Efter Sangen talte Pastor Lund fra Milwaukee paa
Engelsk over den 116.Salme, og (vers) 15 som lyder saaledes: Det er
kosteligt for Herrens Øine når hans hellige dør. Pastor Rasmussen
forrettede Jordpaakastelsen.
Saman med mange andre tidlege pionerar er han
gravlagt på Jefferson Prairie Cemetry. Andrewsonfamiliens gravstad er
markert med ein granittprekestol med ein åpen bibel inngravert.
Teksten på gravstøtta har rett nok feilstaving av namnet hans, der
står:
Sacred
to the memory of Rev. O.Anderson
Born
March 2, 1818
in
Norway
Emigrated
to
America
in 1841.
Died Feb. 23, 1885
Aged
66 yrs. 11 mos.
21 days.
"Blessed
are the
Dead
that die in
the
Lord.
Etterord
Nokon samla biografi om Ole Andrewson finst ikkje.
Men Hatlestad skriv nokre sider om han i boka "Historiske
Meddelelser om den Lutherske Kirke i Amerika" (Decorah 1887).
Kven han eigentleg var, må vi lese ut av dei sporadiske innslaga om
han i ulike bøker og skrifter. Han blir ikkje nemnt som den store
leiaren og initiativtakaren, likevel er han alltid tilstades i
kjeldene og litteraturen. Han skal ha vore ein flink talar. Det han
mangla av utdanning tok han att ved alltid å vere svært godt
førebudd til talene sine. I det kyrkjelege sentrumslandskapet
arbeidde han nært, men i skuggen av den meir skolerte og utadretta
Paul Anderson. Ole var ein hardt arbeidande kyrkjas tenar og verka
gjerne som sekretær og arbeidde mykje i bakgrunnen med
praktisk-organisatoriske ting.
Han har ikkje mange skriftlege arbeid etter seg. I
"Luthersk Kirketidende" er det nokre artiklar av han om
kyrkjelege spørsmål. Han er nemnd som radikal i fleire kjelder. Det
gjev han den noko uvanlege rolla å vere ein radikalar i sentrum, noko
som vanskeleg kan føre til eit roleg tilvære i organisasjonsarbeid.
Dotterdottera, Isabelle Matson Hofman, seier i ein
privat biografi at han var ein høg, vakker mann med langt kvitt
skjegg som nådde han nesten til beltet. Ho hugsar at han som gammal
mann kunne setje seg på golvet og leike med barnebarna, ho nemner ein
barneleik - "The little worm creeps on the ground". Bildet
av han viser utvilsomt ein mann med høg autoritet, lite er att av
gjetarguten under Kleppefjell i Sauland.
Vi veit ikkje kva slag arv han hadde med seg
heimanfrå. Truleg var det ei frigjering å komme bort frå norsk
underklasseliv. Om han heime hadde opplevd noko av den nasjonalkjensla
som på den tida grodde fram mellom breiare lag av folk, har han sett
klart nødvendigheten for immigrantane å gå inn i det amerikanske
samfunnet. Poenget for han var ikkje å skape eit nytt Norge i USA.
Mykje kunne og burde leggast att heime, ikkje minst den høgkyrkjelege
embetsmannsteologien som hadde dominert kristenlivet - i alle fall
før Haugerørsla - og ei sterk sosial klassedeling.
Ikkje for det at alt i Amerika skulle takast imot
ukritisk. Ole var i motsetnad til enkelte prestar i Den norske synode,
heilt klar i slavespørsmålet. Og han såg enkelte amerikanske sekter
som absolutt ute på viddene.
Trass i at han var aktiv og delvis skuldig i fleire
av splittelsane i norske kyrkjesamfunn, var han den som kanskje mest
ønskte samling. Han plasserer seg ganske konsekvent på
sentrumsalternativa, ein eller annan plass mellom Eielsens linje og
statskyrkjeprestane, samtidig som han orienterer seg mot eit felles
amerikansk luthersk syn. Og framtida kom til å vise at lina hans var
den som skulle overleve inn i det moderne USA.
Bakgrunnsstoff/kilder - og tips til vidare
lesing:
- Stephanie Matson / Frederick Rognald Matson:
Diverse private skrifter, bl.a. biografi om Ole Andrewson og Ragnhild
Paulson g.Andrewson og notat frå Andrewson’s familiebibel.
- History of Clinton, Rock county, Wisc. (Utdrag):
The history of Jefferson Prairie Lutheran Church
- Odd S.Lovoll: Det løfterike landet
- Blegen: Norwegian Migration to America 1825-1860
- Nelson/Fevold: The Lutheran Church among
Norwegian Americans
- Bergh: Den norsk lutherske Kirkes historie i
Amerika
- Norlie m.fl.: Norsk Lutherske Prester i Amerika
1843-1913
- Gjertrud Kleveland Karlsrud: Hjartdalsoga (Band
2 og 3b)
- Gerhard B.Naeseth: Norwegian Immigrants to the
United States I-II
- O.J.Hatlestad: Historiske Meddelelser om den
Lutherske Kirke i Amerika
- Sandvin: Elling Eielsen Sundve (Trykte
forelesningar frå Eielsen-seminar på Voss 1979)
- Telesoga Nr ?
- An Immigrant Shipload of 1840 (C.A.Clausen - NAHA)
- Decorahposten 18.3.1885: O.J.Hatlestad: Om
Pastor O.Andrewsons Livsførels, Død og Begravelse.
©
Telemark historielag / Leif Skoje 2000
Til toppen av
sida HHL's utvandringsside HHL's
American page
 English version
Translated
by Roger Bond 2004
The Theme in the Yearbook
for Telemark History Group 2000 is Emigration History. Article below is a Sample from the Book
Leif
Skoje:
Ole
Andrewson
Crofters
Boy and Pioneer Pastor
Contents
Introduction
Background, residence and family
Education, emigration planning and departure
Work and marriage in Wisconsin
The start on a life in the Church’s service – at Jefferson
Prairie
Church Separation locally – and over all the Norwegian USA
Break with Eielson – and the approach to American church life
Pastoral Service
Contributions - Both of the wife and the husband
New separations and new church communities
Two persons from Sauland
Epilog
Sources (bibliography)
_____________________
Introduction:
The
pioneer emigrants from the upper Telemark townships were some of the
most predominant number in the time before the mass emigration from
Norway. All the same, we
don’t find so many individual persons from here who have marked
themselves in that historic time. Some
were known as leaders of emigrant groups (Rue and Laraas), one marked
himself as an influential letter writer (Olav Trovatn), one was the
country’s most known postman (Snowshoe Thompson).
One Rauland person would certainly have been a participant to the
killing of Joseph Smith, the founder of the Mormon Church, and proficient
craftsmen and authors were to be found.
One was a Congressman (Kittel Halvorsen Kjeldahl), and many
offered their lives and health to their new country in the Civil War.
Two contemporaries, Heddaler Nils Johnson Kaasa and Saulander Ole
Andresson Aasen, became forerunners in church organization work in that
first great effort. The
last mentioned, we shall become better acquainted with here.
Ole Andresson Aasen, or Ole Andrewson as he was known in the USA,
is often mentioned among others in E. Clifford Nelson and Eugene L.
Fevolds, The Lutheran Church among Norwegian Americans
(Minneapolis Augsberg Vol. I 1960).
This is the standard work itself on Norwegian-American church
history. All the same he
needs a complete discussion.
As a
crofter’s boy from a little Telemark township, he had little
theological training, But,
with sound farmer intelligence and a paper upon which he was approved as
pastor, he had to, in adult life, often confront university trained
Norwegian clergy who had generations of intellectual officials behind
them in their lineage
There
were only three persons who were ordained as Norwegian pastors in the
USA before Ole. The
Hauganist Eiling Eielsen, the “moderate” Dane C. L. Clausen, and the
uncompromising statechurch pastor J. W. C. Dietrichson.
While he must be regarded as a minor person together with these,
Ole was central in the very complicated Norwegian-American church
history. From 1842 until
his death in 1885, he was an important element in adapting the Norwegian
immigrant community to an American church life.
That was a demanding, pioneering work.
Because, the Norwegian Church, which more or less came over, was
not easy baggage to unpack in the new land.
Perhaps some were already spoiled on the trip and by the arrival.
Some were realized to be unsuitable in the new community and
rather should have been left at home.
Ole’s job was to help the immigrants to unpack and to take care
of the right things, simultaneously some new things, which also must be
obtained at where they had come.
The
article will follow Ole from the modest youth environment in a simple
crofter’s home, through a typical emigrant voyage in the adventuresome
early, pioneer time. There
he could represent hundreds of the first Telemark emigrants.
Afterwards he became an active participant in American church
history; there he provided meaning for hundreds of emigrants. In this manner we get, through his life, a glimpse into the
church history in Norwegian-America up to the 1880’s.
Background,
Residence and Family
Early
in the 1800’s, a spot was cleared right up to the farm Myljom-Bø in
Sauland. The place got the
name Åsen and lay some hundred yards above the farm, up under
Kleppe mountain, on the road to Tuddal.
In this time the whole Bø neighborhood belonged to a rich timber
dealer who was named Jens Ørn, so all the inhabitants there were tenant
farmers and crofters.
At Åsen
it was the crofter Andres Tollevson who farmed in the year 1820,
perhaps he was he, himself, who had cleared and built the place. He was born in 1766 and was married to Ingebjørg Olsdatter.
We cannot clearly identify her closer.
If the birth year is correct, Andres was all of 50 years when the
first child, the daughter Kari, was born in 1816.
The 2nd of March 1818, the son Ole came.
In 1821 Anne came, and in 1825 Helge (girl’s name, pronounced Hælge
– with thick L), in 1828 Tollev, and in 1833 Ingebjørg who died the
same year.
Anne
was married to Hans Larsson Skårset and Helge to Ola Kjetilson
Nord-Listul. Tollev came
probably after to America. The
two older were of the many Saulenders who were among all the
adventuresome pioneers in the history of the emigration to the USA.
Kari
should, according to the Hjartdalsoga, have been married to
Halvor Torbjørnson Omnes, and emigrated the same year, but there is
evidently a mix-up with Torkel Bjørnson Omnes, born 1820. (We find
Torkel Bjørnson on the same boat as Kari, but they are not registered
as married there. Hjartdalsoga
says that Torkel also is married to Kari Andresdatter born 1815.
We don’t find Halvor Torbjørnson on the passenger list during
these times).
That
could have been a good marriage for a crofter’s girl, for Omnes was
among the largest farms in the township.
But it was not the heir to whom she was married, and the solution
with that was emigration. Ole
and the sister left, and we must believe they saw for themselves a
better future in a new land.
Education,
Emigration Plans, and Departure
As
one of many children in a poor crofter’s family, Ole, early on, had to
work and was a shepherd boy. But
people in the township must have noticed this boy and the literary
faculties he must have shown. We
must believe it was the local Pastor Finkerhagen that helped him become
a studet at the Kosa School in Brunkeberg.
This small seminary in Kviteseid was the forerunner to the
teacher training in Telemark, and a number of well-known men studied
there during the time the school existed.
Knut Gislesen Løkslid, a well-known educator, pastor and bishop
from Hjartdal had gone there. Olav
K. Trovatn from Øyfjell, who emigrated and became a well-known letter
writer, went there. And simultaneously with Ole, Aasmund Olavson Vinje
went to the same school.
How Ole could afford to
go there, we don’t know, but he accomplished the instruction and went
to work as a teacher in an ambulatory (or traveling) school in the same
township. He was engaged in
that from 1838 to 1841.
This
bright young man must have been able to keep himself informed in all the
talk of America during this time. It
surely made a strong impression on people that 36 Hjartdal people in
1839 left from the home township; a trip the dimensions of, folk could
hardly imagine. And that
was not a one-time phenomenon either, for the year after, in 1840, Anund
and Aslaug Uvås with four children made the same trip.
It
was quickly known in the township that the folk came out well, and that
there was land and a future for many more in that country.
This large, early emigration from Hjartdal townships was inspired
by the emigration from Tinn in 1837, and the Numedaler Ansten Nattestad.
Ole was perhaps one of those who got for himself, printed
accounts about the emigration, and could read and arrange to others
useful knowledge about what they could obtain. He
could have got hold of Ole Rynnings “Truthful Account about
America.” Which Nattestad had printed in 1838.
The
barque Emilie, which the Uvås family had sailed with from Drammen and Gøteborg
to New York, would take the same route the summer of 1841. With that, the winter ands spring of 1841 was an anxious time
in Hjartdal and Sauland. There
were many who laid serious plans on emigrating, and when Captain Thomas
Anchersen late in the summer guided Emilie out from Drammen Harbor,
there were 92 passengers aboard. Of
these were in all 27 from Hjardal and Sauland.
Among the passengers were Ole and the sister Kari.
There were also Lonar, Skårnes, Skårdal and Bøe folk from
Sauland. So they had plenty of acquaintances along on the journey.
The rest of the passengers were also “landlubbers”- from
Sigdal and Numedal, and from more townships in Upper Telemark.
In the whole, 169 emigrated from the whole country that year.
Some few were from Voss, otherwise all were from the mentioned
townships.
Captain
Anchersen, who himself owned the Emilie, was an experienced seaman.
He was, to be sure, daring to overload the 150 year old ship with
passengers, but in return he took good care of them.
He had along medicine for the most usual sicknesses, and he held
church services on Sundays with religious meetings otherwise.
He also organized the further transportation to the interior in
the USA.
The
ship arrived in New York the 5th of August after about ten
weeks at sea. Thereafter
they followed the usual travel route up the Hudson River to Albany north
of New York City. From
there they continued the trip on cargo barges along the Erie Canal to
Buffalo on Lake Erie, then onward over the Great Lakes to Milwaukee or
Chicago.
In
the same travel group was a family from Southern Hjartdal. It was Torgun Haraldsdotter Tveiten, who had along with her
two daughters from an earlier marriage, Ragnhild and Anne Paulsdotter,
daughters of Paul (Pål) Jonson Aasen.
The new man in the family was Johannes Olsen from Heddal.
One day the 17 years old Ragnhild fell overboard from the canal
boat. Ole performed the
rescue of the young woman, and it was, of course, the same Ragnhild he
married a couple of years later; so tells the great-grandson of Ole, Frederic Rognald Matson.
Work and
Marriage in Wisconsin
Ole,
therefore, came to Wisconsin in 1841 and gained farm work in Racine
County. That says that he
must have stayed in, or in the vicinity of, the Muskego Settlement.
Which is well known from emigrant history, but here is a short
repetition:
Cleng
Peerson guided the first Norwegian emigrants in 1825 to Kendall in New
York State and later to the Fox River area southwest of Chicago in
Illinois. That course, the
first emigrants from the eastern parts of Norway also took, that would
say, the Rue group in 1837. Then
the Lurås group in 1839 came to Milwaukee; they were in a way lured to
settle down nearby on the land by Lake Muskego in southeast Wisconsin,
further north than the earlier emigrants.
In spite of many difficulties, Muskego became the new departure
point, which marked the course for new settling in westerly and northern
directions – further in Wisconsin and towards Minnesota and the Dakota
Territory. When, in
addition, Nattestad and his fellow towns people from Numedal settled in
Jefferson Prairie a little further west in Wisconsin,. That marked the
end for Cleng Peerson’s control of the emigration.
For a poor newcomer
like Ole, the farm work was the surest livelihood.
But afterwards as he became established, he realized that there
was use for the “academic” faculties that he had.
Whether he had planned about being a churchman, we don’t know,
but after a strong religious conversion experience in 1842, he clearly
sees that. He starts a
career as a lay preacher that first year in Racine County.
1843
was also an important year for Ole.
The 29th of June he was married to Ragnhild.
She was born the 23rd of May 1824 and lived all the
way to 1918. The couple had
six daughters and five sons. All
except the youngest son grew up. Ragnhild’s
name was Americanized to Rachel. By
that she held on to the first initial from Norway, and simultaneously
gained a name in a strong biblical tradition.
The Start
of a Life in the Church’s Service – In
Jefferson Prairie
For
four years Ole carried on as a lay preacher.
In connection with that he must have met the Hauganist leader
Elling Eielsen. Simultaneously
he got started farming and must have read and studied everything that he
had access to, not least would be he learned the language.
In
1844 he moved to the Jefferson Prairie settlement and came to live a
little south of the little town of Clinton in Rock County - all the way
south in Wisconsin. He
settled down on a farm and was a teacher and still preacher.
The
first daughter was born the same year, and the name was Isabella, a
naming after Ole’s mother Ingeborg.
Isabella had a considerable role in the community.
Surely as wife of Canute Matson, sheriff in Chicago in a very
dramatic time in the 1880’s, but that is another story.
Jefferson
Prairie was, as Muskego, very important in that early emigration’s
history. It was here the
founders of the emigration, from Upper Telemark and Numedal – Ole and
Ansten Nattestad from Rollag, settled down.
Ansten was back home in 1838-39 and brought a large number of new
emigrants with the help of his own agitation and the book The
Truthful Account about America by Ole Rynning.
He had the manuscript with him, and he had the book printed in
Oslo. In the meantime the
brother Ole found his way to Jefferson Prairie.
A large part of Ansten’s company also went there, mostly
Numendalers, in 1839, while those from Upper Telemark settled in
Muskego.
In History
of Clinton, Rock County it says about Ole that “he went to a
seminary for three years.” There
is nothing else that indicates that Ole took such instruction in the
USA, so it was quite simply enough that it was the seminary in
Kviteseid, which was in Ole’s background, and not other formal
theological education.
But
pastor he was. O. J.
Hatlestad, a longtime ministerial colleague writes, “when the
Christian friends in Illinois and Wisconsin became aware of the Grace
which God had entrusted in Ole Andrewson, he was called in 1846 as
pastor in La Salle County, Illinois.”
In the pioneer
congregations people were particular about official ordination being
very important, certainly with regard to the performance on Communion.
Even if many immigrants themselves were relieved to get away from all
which was called pastors and religion; it was among others a painful
privation of pastors in the first times.
Ole
was ordained as the fourth pastor among Norwegians.
He started with a provisional annual license from an American
Lutheran Society. After
having Americanized his name he was then Reverend Ole Andrewson, and
quickly came to be in the middle of the theological confusion which
Norwegian America must have been during the next 100 years.
One can get the impression that most all the intellectual
capacity among the scholarly Norwegians revolved around discussions and
conflicts in theological doctrinal questions.
“A spiritual bumblebees nest” is one expression which was
used. Many different church
organizations or synods were established and discontinued, divided and
united – as we shall gradually see.
Church
Dividing Locally – and over the Whole Of Norwegian USA
By
settling down in Jefferson County, Ole Andrewson placed himself, also
geographically, in the midst of the struggles, which began to arise in
the church life among Norwegians in the USA.
Already in 1844 people in Jefferson Prairie had divided
themselves in two religious camps, gradually each with their own church
– East Church and West Church. Already
we see here the two principal lines in Norwegian American Lutheran
Church traditions.
The one side had as
their objective to lead the Norwegian State Church into the USA. The first driving force in this was the university educated,
Norwegian pastor J. W. C. Dietrichson (1815-1883), who came to the USA
in 1844. It must have been
difficult for large parts of the early-going emigrant people who had as
one objective to get out from under this strong bureaucratic governed
Norwegian Church with its great weight on external and formalistic
things. But others wanted
this traditional church authority which they were used to.
And after much beating around, the church society – The
Norwegian Synod – was founded in 1853 at a meeting at Rock Prairie,
not far from Clinton. Later
Koshkonong, the large Norwegian settlement a little further north,
became the principal base for Dietrichson.
One of the teaching
problems for this “Norwegian State Church” in the USA later
developed when many pastors would be educated in St. Louis, Missouri, a
State where slavery was permitted.
As a consequence of that, and from a very literal bible
interpretation, it led to
this church actually not able to take a clear and unambiguous distance
from slavery in the decade which followed. We don’t hear about any of the pastors being for slavery,
the debate went on if slavery biblically/theologically was “sin in and
of it self.”
On the opposite side
stood, from the start, the layman movement/Hauganists very strongly
among the Norwegian immigrants. The
Hauganist movement never broke with the official Lutheran Church, but
worked as a popular opposition within it.
In the USA, Elling Eielsen who came from Voss in 1839 was to get
the chance to continue this line. He
was also ordained a Lutheran pastor in 1843.
Eielsen was almost always traveling, but Jefferson Prairie was
his principal base the greater part of his life.
Ole
Andrewson was at first a follower of Eielsen and was acquainted with him
from Muskego/Racine. It
could have been in consultation with Eielsen that Ole went to Jefferson
Prairie. In any case, he
became central in the “West” Church there.
The historian Flom says that he founded the congregation there,
but it was initially in 1850.
In
1846 an historic meeting was arranged in Jefferson Prairie. Present were Elling Eielsen, Paul Anderson – a radical
pastor from Valdres, Ole Andrewson and “a part of the widely
spread-out believers.” Here,
in April 1846, they founded ‘The Evangelical Lutheran Church of
America,” often called “Eielsen’s Synod.”
At the meeting Andrewson functioned as secretary.
“I dictated and Andrewson wrote,” was how Eielsen told of the
by-laws for the organization got started.
Eielsen’s Synod was therefore a reality seven years before
“The Norwegian Synod” was finally organized.
Break
with Eielsen – and Rapproachement to American
Church Life
In 1853 there were two principal lines in the Norwegian American
church organization, each falling into their own synod.
But prior to that time Andrewson and several others had gone
their own way.
Elling
Eielsen was not a man with a sense for organizational work. “Christ didn’t keep records when he went around on
earth,” he declared one time. He
was moreover very “norsk” in his basic viewpoint, lacking a faculty
for cooperation and was generally conservative.
Andrewson, Anderson, and a third young and radical pastor, Ole J.
Hatlestad soon saw the time had come to break out of Eielsen’s Synod.
That happened at a meeting at Middlepoint (Fox River), Illinois
in 1848. Andrewson was
again secretary and called for the meeting.
“They discussed 1) about complaints against Eielsen 2) about
entry in the Franckean Synod.”
At
the meeting Andrewson read out loud a long “list of sins” against
Eielsen. A more concrete
substance of the contents is more difficult to find, but expressions of
laxness and disorder were used. Otherwise
it was probably the general cooperation problem, which lay behind it.
Also it could itself go into more banal rumors about a person
such as Eielsen. In any
case, Eielsen “grabbed his hat and left the meeting.”
Eielsen
and his supporters continued to work in Eielsen’s Synod, while the
others moved out and associated with the German-American, so-called
Franckean Synod, which was based in New York.
It was surely Paul Anderson who had gained familiarity with
American church life. He
had training from a seminary in Beloit (Wisconsin), a little larger town
not far from Clinton. Nevertheless,
so it was Andrewson who was ordained to pastoral service first, just in
that Franckean Synod.
The
Franckeans were Lutheran and Pietist, but liberal, yet not saying
indifferent to doctrinal questions. There was a place for Norwegian
“children’s education” within the organization. For Andrewson and
the others it was exceptionally important that the Franckeans were
strongly opposed to slavery. Here we see actually an initiative to participation in
American church life and community debate from representatives of
Norwegian immigrants. It is
not often that importance is attached to that.
The famous people are often those who will guard the Norwegian
mode of living in the new country.
But, it is the Americanization, which advances little by little
as time passes.
Contact
with American Christian life also came through the American Home Mission
Society in Chicago, which supported mission work among
immigrants generally. Behind
that Society stood the Presbyterian and Congregational Churches.
This was a quite decent and democratic church society.
Paul Anderson and Andrewson founded, with help from that society,
the first Norwegian and Scandinavian church in Chicago in 1848.
This society
supported the work of both Andrewson and Anderson during these years.
For 50 dollars per quarter it asked for written reports.
30 such manuscripts from Andrewson were found in the Society’s
archives from the years 1852 through 1858.
Here he tells about what he had to contend with in his mission.
Carelessness, superstition, red tape, and competing creeds..
The whole time the battle against the extremes on both sides.
American “revivalism,” that is to say, Mormons and other
sects on one side, and conservative, bureaucratic Norwegian Synod clergy
on the other. Mormonism and
fanaticism had raged like a prairie fire in Fox River, he wrote in one
report.
In
the Hjartdalssoga it states that during one period he got firm
payment for delivering at least 30 sermons before church organizations
in Wisconsin and Illinois. That
must also have been in cooperation with the work for the American Home
Mission Society.
It
was Andrewson who first printed a Norwegian Hymnal in America. That was an edition of 784 pages of Harboe and Guldbergs’ Salmebok.
For awhile he edited and printed the paper Norwegian Lutheran
Church Times, which he hoped “with God’s blessings would turn
out to be of use among my countrymen.”
As a pastor, and to a great degree a missionary, he was also a
moral example, always in battle against alcohol, cursing, Sunday work
and other vices. It is
mentioned in several sources that alcohol abuse was certainly widespread
among many of the first Norwegian immigrants. This was also a large
community problem back home in Norway.
But organized abstinence work gradually corrected this, both in
Norway and in America.
In
this period, F. R. Matson tells, Andrewson saw a large body of his
Illinois congregation leave for Iowa. This could have been in
cooperation with the Methodist, Nils Johnson Kaasa from Heddal. - and
the establishment of the Washington Prairie settlement in Chickasaw
County by the city of Decorah.
Ole
also took part in the school debate.
Norwegians were not satisfied with the religion-free official
American school, and at times established their own schools.
Andrewson always saw the value of the children going to American
schools, but also approved of a local Norwegian school, so long as it
didn’t interfere with the official school
Pastoral
Service
In
1847-48 when he, as a newly ordained pastor, still were cooperating with
Eielsen, Ole was in La Salle County in Illinois.
He organized congregations in Indian Creek, Lisbon and Mission
Point. This was in the area
where Norwegians had settled down as early as in 1834-35, led by Cleng
Peerson. In 1851 he was again called to Racine County, and he served
congregations in Muskego, Racine (city) and Milwaukee in a two years
period.
After
that, he was three years in Fox River in LaSalle County; there he
traveled around and worked in many congregations – as a so-called
“circuit rider minister,” – before settling down firmly in
Clinton/Jefferson Prairie from 1856.
He now bought his own farm 3 miles south of the town and had his
home there the rest of his life, with the exception of a couple of years
in Leland, La Salle County in 1875-76.
He served the Evangelical
Lutheran Church in Clinton and lived three miles south of town (the
house, by highway 140, burned down in later times).
He was, at that time, back continuously in the old “West
Church,” which also got a new church building during that time. Ole
bought, moreover, the earlier church.
We don’t know what he did with it, but woodwork is still in use
in the home of his descendant , Mike Ligmans.
Contributions
of Both Wife and Husband
Simultaneously
while Andrewson was engaged in church life and theological debates at
high levels, there were also the usual daily services, which he did as
the congregational pastor. As
pastor there was little pay to receive, because people were poor and he
has to engage in much useful work in order to support his growing
family. Now this was not
something that frightened the earlier shepherd boy and farm hand, and as
Hatlestad said, “He worked tirelessly for God’s Glory and Souls
Salvation.”
One
can ask themselves how people had the capacity for all this work,
especially without our present communication resources.
Rachel’s contributions one must reckon as being behind him the
whole time and making Ole’s work possible.
She bore 10 children between 1844 and 1867. The stress of the youngest son dying in 1870 she had to, as a
middle-aged woman, also live through.
Simultaneously, she took care of the work with the house, home
and children. She was very
strict in the handling of their children, but always fair – and she
was not without a sense of humor.
Probably,
she was in charge of much of the farm work too, for it appeared that the
farming was going on parallel with all the other things. The farm gradually became the usual size – 160 acres.
And we know that it always had to struggle economically.
Very much of the time, Ole must have been traveling between the
different congregations by which he was employed.
Rachel
had to work with all the typical woman’s work for her time, all the
way to the last years. Not
least, she worked with growing flax.
She did everything from sowing the seed to weaving the finished
linen garment.
It
appeared, according to Hatlestad, that Ole paid for the voyage to
America for his elderly mother and an invalid brother, and that for them
“…in his house was the needed care and carefree support until
death.”
Children
of Rachel and Ole were: Isabella
, born 1844, died 1909: Paul, born 1846, died 1918; Andrew, born 1848,
died 1931; Anne Turina, born 1851, died 1936; Oliver, born 1853, died
1926; Carolina, born 1855, died 1942; Helen Rebecca, born 1857, died
1937; Anne Lovisa, born 1859, died 1932; Emma Chaterina, born 1862, died
1921; Henry, born 1864, died 1954; and Oscar Norman, born 1867, died
1870.
Rachel
died in 1918, 94 years old.
New
Separation and New Church Organization
After
three years in the Franckean Synod, Anderson, Andrewson and Hatlestad
found it was time to pull out. Together
with English, Swedish and Norwegian Lutherans they now formed in 1851
the Northern Illinois Synod. They
concluded with that action, the connection to the Franckean
Organization, which they had well reckoned would be an interlude.
They now said that it was necessary for a clearer Lutheran
theology. In the Northern
Illinois Synod, Andrewson was ultimately ordained after several years
with time-limited licenses.
That
was also an interlude, for in 1860, the Scandinavians left, led by the
same three pastors, and formed the ‘The Scandinavian Augustana
Synod.” The name emphasized still more weight on orthodox
Lutheranism. But the
struggle was mostly about clerical education.
At
last the Norwegians in America had a church organization with some
solidity. In the void
between ‘The Norwegian Synod” and Eielsen’s Synod, the
“Scandinavian Augustana Synod” united 17 pastors and 36
congregations. Their own
pastoral school was also established – here it was a separate
“Norwegian” department, Augsburg
Seminary, in 1869.
This
organization didn’t get a chance to cooperate with the other
established Lutheran church organizations.
And it didn’t come about to remain connected either.
Clergy training being cut out was one thing. In addition, it was the new immigrants, inspired by Gisle
Johnson’s theology, which resulted in the Norwegians in 1870 moving
out to form their own synod.
That
happened “after a friendly arrangement” with the Swedes. But Andrewson and some others were not happy about this
partition. After many years
as “Americans,” he sees influence from a more modern Norway as
foreign. It is a manuscipt
from Andrewson, the Jefferson Circular, which underscores the
opposition, which right from the start, existed in the new organization.
At
the annual meeting where the division was to be carried out, he asked
about staying in the Swedish department, something for which he did not
get permission. This could
suggest that he now, as an older man, showed a defiant and inflexible
attitude, but it was probably rather a demonstration – another sign of
opposition against organizing themselves on a nearsighted Norwegian
basis. The reaction from the meeting is on “friendly admonishment”
of his reluctance to go along in the new synod.
At
several meetings they tried to come to agreement in the new synod
without succeeding. The
Danish, pioneer pastor from Muskego, C. L. Clausen, was now a central
person in the discussion. He
becomes president to a wide number which broke out. That majority came
to call themselves “The Norwegian-Danish Conference,” and was one of
the important church organizations towards the end of the 1800’s in
the Norwegian USA. Even if
the Conference itself didn’t avoid shedding and splitting, it was in
one period the strongest alternative to the conservative Norwegian
Synod. In many ways the
“Conference” was in line with the new liberal political thoughts at
home in Norway., as the liberal politics and general national and
democratic development. That
the word “Danish” was in the name stems from Clausen, who was
originally from Denmark, and so a small group of Danes amongst the
immigrants could feel at home.
Andrewson
was left behind in a rather small minority.
He received, among others, his old cooperative partner Hatlestad,
and one other who followed him from the Franckean times, Andres Aslaksen
Scheie.
Now
we also see a generational contrast.
Young, dynamic and well trained pastors dominated in the
Conference.” Andrewson,
and several with him, lacked the formal academic background and the
modern style, which was now prevailing.
And although we have defined the Andrewson-circle as radical,
that was on the theological and organizational level, in comparison to
Dietrichson’s rigid State Church forms and Eielsen’s fundamentalist
Hauganism. In relationship
with adiafora – dance, drink, card playing, et cetera, he was clearly
conservative. It was among
other things that he emphasized in the Jefferson Circular which
led him on a collision course with the later Conference clergy.
In
spite of Andrewson’s American stand, it was his organization which
happened to go under the name “The Norwegian Augustan Synod.”
Andrewson himself was the top leader from 1880, and among other
things, had as a duty ordaining new pastors.
In 1883 the Synod had 21 pastors and 55 congregations. Totally, there were 310 Lutheran clergy and 1185
congregations amongst the Norwegian-Americans at this time.
Over half belonged to “The Norwegian Synod” (State Church
Synod).
Andrewson
worked more and more these last years for the unification of the
Norwegian church community. Among
other things he tried to bring about a union with the Hauganists.
But, as it states in Bergh’s Church History, “there
was the nost beautiful harmony in everything except that one of the
Augustana Synod’s pastors, Ole Andrewson had some thoughts about The
Millenium which Hauge people found quite serious.
The story was probably that the “Hauge Synod” was not very
interested in that union.
Within
the Conference, and between them and “The Norwegian Synod” (State
Church Synod) the opposition continued, and a united “Norwegian
Lutheran Church in America,” didn’t see the light of day before the
9th of June, 1917. After
that, the Americanization was on its way, perhaps more in line with Ole
Andrewson’s ideas. “Norwegian” was omitted from the name from 1946, and
gradually they cooperated more fully with other countries’ Lutheran
Churches. In 1988 there was
finally a united “Evangelical Luthern Church in America.
Two
“Saulanders”
On
his many travels around Illinois and Wisconsin, Andrewson several times
came to Muskego. There he met an earlier acquaintance and “fellow
villager.” That man was
Halvor Nelson Lonar. His
siblings had been on the “Emilie” in company with Ole.
Halvor had, right from the start, asserted himself in the pioneer
area. He had leaded the construction work when the church there
(the first Norwegian church in America) was built in 1844. Now he was farming and engaged in woodcarving, and did
carpentering on the side.
And he was active in the community life; yes, he had been close
to being chosen both as a sheriff and judge in the Norwegian new
township.
There
is a story about Halvor, who was a widower, that he would be married
again. It was said that he
could not “acknowledge” Andrewson the pastor with the Franckean view
point, even if he was a “fellow Saulander.”
Yes, Andrewson even came, with the name of Ole Saulending. (Now,
it was a wedding all the same, because Halvor had a helper in threshing,
and he had legal training and could give Halvor and the new wife an
approved civil wedding).
The
whole story abut the wedding is written down in Telesoga (a paper
for the Telemark association in America), and is assigned to 1862. The story tells us that the farmers could have a clear vision
of the church debate, even if the price of wheat was the most usual
conversation subject And we must believe that the discussion about the
church problems could get intense, both out in the fields and in social
circles – certainly between the more community engaged Norwegian
immigrants.
The
short interlude in the Franckean Synod was, in the whole, a hereditary
weakness for Andrewson and the others.
It took a long time before colleagues and lay people understood
that they were quite traditional and moderate pastors, who had had a use
for an American religious connection on those occasions when some
Norwegian alternatives were not to be found.
Death and
Interment
Not
long before he died, Ole had been in Chicago for a Synod meeting, a
joint meeting where the work for unification was central.
There he contracted a serious cold which weakened his power of
resistance against nephritis (Bright’s Disease) from which he
suffered. Ole Andrewson died the 23rd of February, 1885 at 2
o’clock during the day.
In
the funeral, the 1st of March, there was a large flock of
friends, relatives and acquaintances.
Widow Rachel, who was now 60 years old, and all of the ten
children were lined up, of course.
People came there from the many congregations where he was known,
and many clergy had cancelled their own services that day, and
accompanied the internment which all took place in his own congregation
in Jefferson Prairie.
O. J.
Hatlestad, who was at the funeral, also wrote a memorial to him in the Decorah
Posten the 18th of March.
He closed by reporting from the ceremony.
The
departed brother’s own congregation took charge of his funeral Pastor
Rasmussen spoke in the “mourning house;” in the church Pastor Omland
read a section of God’s Word and gave a prayer.
The undersigned, (Hatlestad) spoke on Philippians 1, vs 21.
After the hymn Pastor Lund spoke in English on the 116th
Psalm, and verse 15, which runs like this, “ It is priceless in the
Lord’s sight when his saint dies.”
Pastor Rasmussen performed the grave side ceremony.
Together
with many other early pioneers he was buried in the Jefferson Prairie
Cemetery. The Andrewson
family’s grave site is marked with a granite pulpit with an open bible
engraved. The text on the
grave monument has straight out, a miss-spelling of his name; it stands,
Sacred
to the memory of Rev. O. Anderson
Born
March 2, 1818
In
Norway
Emigrated
to
America
in 1841,
Died
Feb. 23, 1885
Aged
66 yrs. 11 mos.
21
days
“Blessed
are the
Dead
that die in
The
Lord.”
Epilog
A
collected biography of Ole Andrewson is not found.
But Hatlestad has some pages about him in the book Historic
Reports on the Lutheran Church in America (Decorah, 1887).
Who he actually was, we must read from the sporadic references to
him in different books and documents.
He was not mentioned as a great leader or initiative taker,
nevertheless, he is always present in the sources and the literature.
He was a competent orator. That
which he missed in training, he made up for by always being very well
prepared in his speeches. In
the Churches central province he worked closely, but in the shadow of
the better-trained and outgoing Paul Anderson.
Ole was a hard working servant of the Church, and worked
generally as secretary, and worked primarily in the background with
practical, organizational things.
He
didn’t have many written works by him.
In the Lutheran Church Times there are some articles by
him on churchly questions. He
is mentioned as radical in various sources.
This gave him the unusual role of being a radical in the center;
something which could hardly lead to a peaceful existence in
organizational work.
The
granddaughter, Isabella Matson Hofman, says in a private biography that
he was a tall, handsome man with a long white beard, which reached
nearly to the belt. She
recalled that he, as an old man, could set himself on the floor and play
with grandchildren. She
mentioned a child’s game – “The little worm creeps on the
ground.”
The
picture of him shows a man undoubtedly with high authority. Little is left of the shepherd boy under Kleppefjell in
Sauland. We don’t know
what sort of heritage he had with him from home.
It was probably a liberation to come away from Norwegian lower
class life. At home he had
experienced some of the national recognition which in that time sprouted
forth among a broad social stratum of people.
He has clearly seen the necessity for the immigrants to go into
the American community. The
point for him was not to create a new Norway in the USA.
Much could, and ought to, be left back home, not least the high
churchly, bureaucratic theology which had dominated the Christian life
– in any case before the Hauge movement – and strong social class
divisions.
Not
that all in America should be received uncritically.
Ole was, opposed to some clergy in the Norwegian Synod,
completely clear on the slavery question.
And he saw some American sects as absolutely “out of this
world.”
In
spite of that, he was active and to some extent guilty in several of the
breakups in the Norwegian church community, he was the one who, perhaps
most of all, wanted unification. He
placed himself in the entirely consistent, central alternative; one or
another place between Eielsen’s line and the State Church clergy
simultaneously, as he oriented himself towards a common American
Lutheran vision. And the future came to show that his “line” was that
which would survive in the modern USA.
Bibliography
– and Tips for Further Reading
-
Stephanie Matson / Frederick Rognald
Matson: Diverse private skrifter, bl.a. biografi om Ole Andrewson og
Ragnhild Paulson g.Andrewson og notat frå Andrewson’s familiebibel.
-
History of Clinton, Rock county, Wisc. (Utdrag): The
history of Jefferson Prairie Lutheran Church
-
Odd S.Lovoll: Det løfterike landet
-
Blegen: Norwegian Migration to America 1825-1860
-
Nelson/Fevold: The Lutheran Church among Norwegian
Americans
-
Bergh: Den norsk lutherske Kirkes
historie i Amerika
-
Norlie m.fl.: Norsk Lutherske
Prester i Amerika 1843-1913
-
Gjertrud Kleveland Karlsrud:
Hjartdalsoga (Band 2 og 3b)
-
Gerhard B.Naeseth: Norwegian Immigrants to the United
States I-II
-
O.J.Hatlestad: Historiske
Meddelelser om den Lutherske Kirke i Amerika
-
Sandvin: Elling Eielsen Sundve
(Trykte forelesningar frå Eielsen-seminar på Voss 1979)
-
Telesoga Nr ?
-
An Immigrant Shipload of 1840 (C.A.Clausen - NAHA)
-
Decorahposten 18.3.1885:
O.J.Hatlestad: Om Pastor O.Andrewsons Livsførels, Død og Begravelse.
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