Anders and Anna Olson's Marriage and the Jewell Norwegian Evangelical Lutheran Church

 
After the town of Jewell Junction was formed in 1880, a group of Norwegian immigrants began to organize a Lutheran congregation.  The first preacher called to serve this church was N. G. Peterson and he preached his first sermon in the summer of 1887.  Church services were first held in an old school building.  Later that summer they adopted a constitution and named the new congregation the "Jewell Norwegian Evangelical Lutheran Congregation"  They decided also to pay the preacher a salary of 40 dollars for the first year and 50 dollars for the following year.  In 1889 they began raising the funds for a new church building and acquire land in Jewell to build the new church.    It was decided they would need to raise between 1200.00 and 1400.00 dollars.  The church was completed in the fall of 1890.  Several Danish families joined the church and the congregation decided to change the name to "Bethesda Norwegian Danish Evangelical Lutheran Congregation".   The church grew and there was a need to enlarge the building.  In 1899, the church was enlarged with the addition of a wing on the north side.  A new pipe organ was bought by the youth for 1200 dollars.  Prior to 1915, all services were conducted in Norwegian.  After 1915 it was decided to alternate each Sunday between English and Norwegian.  It later went to having only one service a month in Norwegian until 1936, when all services were conducted in English.  The church's name was eventually changed to Bethesda Lutheran Church.  
 
The church and its parsonage
 
 
 
The first three pastors


 
 An interior shot of the church
 
 
 
 
Old communion ware from the church

 
 
Offering plates

 
 
Bethesda's Mission Statement 



The following pictures are of the Norwegian hymn book







The church was built just prior to Anders and Anna getting married.  I am not sure if they were married in the church or if the pastor came to Anna's parents home and married them there.  I like to think that they were married in the church!    The service was probably performed in Norwegian.  Since Anna's father was German and her mother Norwegian, I am curious if she was fluent in German, Norwegian and English. (or did she learn English later)  
 
 
I believe these were pictures of Anna and Anders right before they got married.
 
 

 
 Here is the marriage license of Anders and Anna.  The document shows that N. G. Peterson married them and the witness's name was Lewis Miller.  Since Miller is the same name as Anna's maiden name I have been trying to figure out if he was related, but haven't had any luck. (yet!)   


 

Here they wrote Anders name as Andrew  and also shows his parents name. 

 The current Bethesda Lutheran Church in Jewell.  The old church set just to the north of this church, where the church sign now sits. 






 The pictures are from my trip to Jewell in June.  The history of the church and old pictures came from this site:  http://jewelljunctionhistory.org/BethesdaLutheranChurch.htm


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