Seventy-fifth Anniversary - 1884-1959

October 14, 1959

St. Ansgar's Lutheran Church, Rosenborg

p.7-9

ORGANIZATION

Nebraska has been described - in its early days - as "the land of sunflowers, grasshoppers and separatists," and certainly the first settlers and many of their later followers had their full measure of trials, as a result of grasshopper plagues, financial crisis and crop failures. There were also the sins and vices which are so common to mankind. The story of the Lutheran church in Nebraska, and America, is more than a tale of churches and parsonages, adverses and advances - it is a chapter of the great Kingdom of Christ, the story of souls, the story of the Gospel among men.

In the first part of the 80's there were only three pastors of the Danish church in Nebraska, of whom the Rev. K. C. Bodholt was serving the church of Marquette. He held services there two Sundays a month and traveled into other parts of the state the remaining Sundays of the month. It was a major problem to contact people, to know where the Danish colonies were, to get names of people in the colonies and to know whether or not they were interested.

Rev. Bodholt wrote to Martin Holst, editor of the newspaper "Dannevirke", for a list of subscribers. He received the name and address of a man from this colony.

As Bodholt did not hear from this man, he thought that either his letter had been lost and else he was not interested in his services. He dismissed the idea of coming here after a lapse of time and started to seek colonies elsewhere.

One day, much to his surprise, he received a letter postmarked Palestine, post office was near the site of the present Palestine School House. Mikkel Sorensen had heard about the letter this other man had received and wrote to Rev. Bodholt, inviting him to come to his home. Bodholt accepted the invitation and arrangements for a service were made. On this certain Saturday, he arrived in St. Edward, the nearest railroad station. One of the Sorensen boys, Soren Samuel Sorensen, met the minister at the depot in a wagon drawn by a team of horses.

Rev. Bodholt learned from the boy, on this trip out, (10 miles) that the other two Danish ministers had each visited the colony once but that was the extent of their visits.

(Excerpts from Bodholt's book "PAA PRAERIEN I NYBYGGERTIDEN". )

"We reached the Mikkel Sorensen home and I was a very welcome guest. They lived in a sod house, located one and one-half miles south of Rosenborg, on what is now the Harvey Larson farm. The sod house was a bit east of the site of the present Larson home. Their home, consisting of two rooms had very meager furniture, but they understood how to be happy and satisfied with a very small amount of material things. There being only one picture on the wall, it, naturally, attracted my attention. I found it to be a portrait of a minister in Denmark who was my personal friend and learned he had confirmed Mrs. Sorensen. This mutual acquaintance made conversation easy and soon we were discussing the Dane families who lived in Looking Glass. Many of them had come "Vejle Egne" in Denmark. They were progressing, materially, but longed for the church they had left across the ocean, and were eager to hear the Gospel preached' in their native language. We sang some Danish hymns.

I began to wonder where I would be lodged for the night - I just knew I couldn't stay here - only two rooms - the Sorensen family was a large family. Every one was so interested in reminiscing that bed time held no lure for them, but when I noticed it was past midnight I remarked that we would have to get some rest and that, tomorrow, we could continue our reminiscing. I was still certain that they would have to take me to another family for the nights lodging. But, not so, the floor of one room was made into one large bed and here, I, with the rest of the men-folk, slept. A bed was made for the women in the other room.

We men, lying side by side, were soon sound asleep, but later in the night I awoke. I heard strange sounds above. What could it be! ! - Ghosts - No! I wasn't superstitious, but what COULD it be? When at daybreak I heard a rooster crow I realized the chickens' roost was above this room. Hence the noise.

The next day we had services in a small church, (Bethany) which was attended by most all the Danes in the colony. I visited the colony several times and on one of these visits. Sunday, October 14, 1884, we met at the Mikkel Sorensen home in the afternoon and organized a congregation. It consisted of three families, namely. MikkeI Sorensen, Jens Christensen Hesselballe and Peter Buhl.

I held services for them once a month from then on. The services were held in this little church a few times, then in a school house and later in the Parsonage. It was usually S. S. Sorensen that met me at the railroad station. This was sometimes a hazardous trip, especially in inclement weather. Our conversation, on one of these trips, centered on the possible location of a church. Soren Sorensen revealed his dreams of a suitable site which he 'thought could be purchased from man living further cast. Nearing the colony he pointed out the site, a timber claim on a plateau, which could be seen at quite a distance throughout the colony. Sorensen remarked, "Wouldn't that be a beautiful place? As I go about my work at home and visualize the future I can just imagine our church on that spot."

As time went on - more people came to our services and other families invited me to their homes and met me at the station. We continued our services in the little school house (now district 40). My only monetary compensation was the small collection at each service. My only concern was, to get enough to pay my railroad fare. My greatest compensation was the genuine spiritual happiness of the individuals, and the fact that the attendance steadily increased.

After about two years service here, I was presented a gift, a horse. They figured, riding a horse wouldn't cost me so much, nor take me as long time on the road. (It took me a day to come from Central City to St. Edward by rail.) I named my pony Blanche. But!! I hadn't ridden a horse since I was a child. How should I get Blanche home? It is 60 miles from Looking Glass to my home in Marquette. I knew I couldn't possibly ride that distance without a saddle. I asked one of the men to take me to a village (Lindsay) near the colony, to buy a saddle. This he did.

The pony saddled, I jumped into the saddle and started towards home. I was elated about my gift and my first thoughts were of my wife and son meeting me as I, the proud rider, would come riding up to the gate.

On the first part of my journey the country was fairly well settled. After having traveled about 20 miles I reached Fullerton. I stopped here to feed and rest my horse as well as obtain an evening meal for myself. I noticed, about two miles southwest of Fullerton, that the country was practically all native prairie and very sparsely settled. I almost lost my direction but when darkness came I was guided by the lights of Central City. My biggest trouble, at this stage, was to keep my horse from stumbling in holes and dugouts. I put my trust in the horse. It was, indeed, a wonderful ride over this flat prairie at night. I thought about the Indians, who, just a few years prior, had roamed this territory. It was a little after midnight when I reached Central City. My question, now, - Shall I continue the 10 miles home or stay here? I decided the horse needed rest and I did want to come riding up to that gate by daylight so that I could present myself on the horse to my wife and son.

The next morning I realized I had made a mistake, I could hardly get out of bed and with much difficulty did I mount the saddle. Blanche had to walk every foot of the 10 miles home. Finally we reached the gate. My wife and son came out to greet me and I like a proud child said: "This is MY horse, actually, my OWN horse." We felt we were rich people.

My wife had to help me out of the saddle and care for the horse. It took eight days to get back to normal but my thankfulness and happiness about the horse, offset the discomfort. We, later, bought a wagon and how joyously we visited our people. It is with pleasure that I reminisce about my work in Looking Glass."