ST. LUKE'S Pastors
Pioneer Lutheran home mission pastors came to this area occasionally and found a welcome in meetings of the homes of early settlers. One of those pastors was named Wilhelmsen according to 75th Anniversary Church History of St. Luke’s Church.
A desire for more regular services led to the organization of the “Buffalo Creek Scandinavian Evangelical Lutheran Congregation of Cloud and Jewell Counties, State of Kansas” on December 28, 1874. In 1892, this congregation united with another small congregation forming “St. Luke’s Evangelical Lutheran Church in Cloud and Jewell Counties, State of Kansas.”
Early religious services and instruction were conducted “in the Scandinavian language.” Many of the first pastors were Norwegian and their records were written in Norwegian, some as late as the 1920s.
THE FIRST PASTORS 1875 – 1892
Elling Olsen Dale was born in 1849 in Norway. He immigrated to Wisconsin in 1856, married his wife Inger Marie Iverson in Iowa, and moved to Jewell County, Kansas in 1874. Pastor Dale served as a circuit riding missionary preacher in Jewell County, Kansas for six years.
Elling Olsen Dale served a congregation at Mankato where the parsonage was located. The Dales lost their first two children in a diphtheria plague in 1879: three-year-old daughter Gurie Bergitte and one-year-old son Olearius Leonard. Both children are buried in the East Lutheran Cemetery at Mankato.
Early in 1880, the St. Luke’s congregation officially become part of the parish served by Pastor Dale. The parish and preaching places were at Mankato, St. Luke’s, White Rock, Glasco, Morganville (then called Morgantown) and St. John’s (northeast of Jamestown.)
Pastor Dale resigned from serving St. Luke’s not long after St. Luke’s joined the parish. He and his wife left Kansas and moved to Union County, South Dakota where twins were born in 1881. They gave the twins the same names as the two deceased children buried in Mankato. Rev. Dale continued preaching in South Dakota, usually making trips between preaching places on horseback but sometimes skiing across the prairies because of heavy snowfalls.
Elling Olsen Dale died May 6, 1926 and is buried in the Brule Creek Cemetery, Spink Township, Union County, South Dakota alongside his wife and many of their children.
Otto Carl Johannes Baker was born in 1846 in Norway. In 1881, he succeeded Pastor E. O. Dale at St. Luke’s Church.
Conditions were leading to a separation among the churches in the parish with the Mankato church. In a meeting held at St. Luke’s Church on February 14, 1882, the St. Luke’s congregation decided to part ways with other congregations of that parish and build a parsonage. The new parsonage was built in Jamestown, financed mainly by the Glasco, St. John’s, and Buffalo Creek (St. Luke's) congregations.
On June 29, 1882, Pastor Baker married Josephine Bessesen in Chicago, Illinois and brought his new wife back to live in Jamestown. Their first daughter was born in May 1883.
Difficulties arose between the St. Luke’s Church congregation and Pastor Baker. The court case was withdrawn when the pastor resigned in November 1886. However, the family did not leave Jamestown until after the birth of their second daughter in June 1887. They moved to Muskegon, Michigan and later moved to Chicago, Illinois.
Otto Carl Johannes Baker died on November 17, 1898. He and his wife are buried in Graceland Cemetery, Chicago, Cook County, Illinois.
Johannes (John) Olsen Litsheim was born in Norway in 1863. He immigrated to the United States in 1881. After he graduated from seminary and was ordained as a Lutheran minister, he and his bride came to St. Luke’s. He also served the Glasco Lutheran Church and the St. John’s Church northeast of Jamestown.
Pastor Litsheim married his first wife Ingeborg Marie H. Thoe in 1887. She died shortly after giving birth to a baby girl on May 11, 1889. The child, Annette Magdalene, also died. Pastor Litsheim did baptize his daughter before her death, recording her name and birth date in the St. Luke’s Ministerial Logbook. He did not record the death of his wife or daughter. However, an old hand drawn map identified the location of their graves in St. Luke’s Cemetery. Dowsing confirmed that a woman and baby are buried in an unmarked grave at that location.
Following the death of his wife and their infant daughter, Pastor Litsheim withdrew from the parish and returned to Minnesota. He married Christine Strand in 1889. They had 14 children, 13 of whom grew to adult life. He later quit the ministry and became a rural mail carrier.
Johannes (John) Olsen Litsheim died on August 16, 1943 and is buried in the Kenyon Cemetery, Kenyon, Goodhue County, Minnesota.
Ove Boyesen Wangensten Thorpe was born in Norway in 1859 and came to America in 1882. He attended seminary in Minnesota, was ordained as a minister in 1889 and arrived in Jamestown in December 1889. He accepted the call to serve at St. Luke’s Church and held his first service there on Christmas Day.
Pastor Thorpe married Jennie M. Anderson of Morganville, Kansas on November 12, 1890. They lived in the church parsonage in Jamestown.
In December 1891, Pastor Thorpe served as the secretary at a joint meeting of the “Buffalo Creek Scandinavian Evangelical Lutheran Congregation of Cloud and Jewell Counties, State of Kansas” and “The Evangelical Lutheran Congregation of Allen Township." At this meeting, the congregations decided to unite, forming the “St. Luke’s Evangelical Lutheran Church in Cloud and Jewell Counties, State of Kansas.”
Pastor Thorpe remained in service at St. Luke’s for a short while after the congregations joined together. Then he and his wife moved to a farm north of Morganville.
Ove Boyesen Wangensten Thorpe died in Denver, Colorado on October 12, 1916. He is buried beside his wife in the Norwegian Lutheran Cemetery, Clay Center, Clay County, Kansas.
SERVING ST. LUKE’S 1892 – 1901
Nels Nelson Tosseland was born in 1837 in Norway. He immigrated to America in 1864.
Pastor Tosseland was the pastor of The Evangelical Lutheran Congregation of Allen Township and remained in service for a short while after the congregations united. He occasionally helped with ministerial acts at St. Luke’s and assisted when Pastor Stavik’s health failed.
Pastor Tosseland lived in Jamestown until August 1892. At that time, he moved to Norway and lived in the new Lutheran parsonage there. Pastor Tosseland served as pastor of the Norway church until 1896. In December, 1893, the Tosseland’s daughter Anna married Peder Hammer. They lived on a farm east of Norway for over 70 years.
Nels Nelson Tosseland died on July 20, 1920 in Lincoln County, South Dakota. He is buried beside his second wife Barbara in the Otis Grove Cemetery, Franklin County, Iowa.
Anders E. Eriksen was born in Norway in 1861. He immigrated to America in 1853 and married Ella Gullickson in 1875.
Pastor Eriksen served in Broken Bow, Nebraska from 1891 to 1894. Late in 1892, he began holding services at intervals at St. Luke’s Church but he did not become a regular Pastor at the church.
When his health failed, Pastor Eriksen returned to his home at Preston, South Dakota, where he died on October 30, 1895. He is buried in the Odden Cemetery, Kingsbury County, South Dakota
Bertil Andersen Stavik was born in Norway in 1857 and immigrated to the United States in 1881. In 1892, he came to Kansas and became the first resident Pastor of the new united St. Luke’s congregation. After the two churches joined together, St. Luke’s remained in the parish with Glasco and St. John’s.
After a short time at St. Luke’s, Pastor Stavik’s health failed and he was unable to carry out the work in full.
Pastor Stavik left Kansas and moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota where he married Ingeborg Kristine Hoines in October 1907. He died June 13, 1940 and is buried in Crystal Lake Cemetery, Minneapolis, Hennepin County, Minnesota beside his wife who died in late April 1940.
Pastor N. Hansen was serving in California as a pastor of the United Danish Lutheran Evangelical Lutheran Church of America. In 1895, he visited and preached at St. Luke’s Church. The parish congregations extended a call to him. He accepted and brought his family to Kansas that fall.
In 1896, an addition was made to the St. Luke’s church building. The cornerstone was laid by Pastor Hansen. An elderly man at Glasco had given Pastor Hansen a sum of money to be used “in God’s service.” Pastor Hansen used that money to buy an altar, which was placed in the new addition. The renovated church was dedicated on November 7, 1897.
Pastor Hansen resigned and left in late 1897.
When the Glasco and St. John’s churches issued a call to Pastor Dalbo in 1897, St. Luke’s did not join in the call to serve. Although he performed ministerial acts for the congregation, Pastor Dalbo did not become the pastor at St. Luke’s.
Jens Jensen Dalbo was born in Denmark in 1869 and immigrated to the United States in 1892. He was a resident of Platte County, Nebraska when he married Johanna Sorenson in November 1896. By 1900, the family was living in Buffalo Township, north of Jamestown. Johanna Dalbo died in January 1905 along with an infant daughter. Both were buried in the Danish Lutheran Cemetery next to the St. John’s Church.
Jens J. Dalbo later moved to Florida where he died in 1957. He is buried in the Oakdale Cemetery, DeLand, Volusia County, Florida.
Following the resignation of Pastor N. Hansen in 1897, Nicolay Hanson Holm of Norway was asked to come and hold services at St. Luke’s Church at regular intervals. He did so until February 1902.
Nicolay Hanson Holm was born in Norway in 1861. He immigrated to America in 1888. He served as the pastor for the church in Norway from 1896 to 1902. While he was there, he married Lina Ankrust in 1897. When they left Norway, Kansas, they moved to Bemidji, Minnesota. He also served in Deer Park, Wisconsin and Ryder, North Dakota.
Nicolay Hanson Holm died on October 31, 1918. He is buried in Rosehill Memorial Park, Minot, Ward County, North Dakota.
Hans Olaf Mathison was born in 1869 in Norway. He immigrated to America in 1891. He was ordained as a Lutheran minister in 1901. While a candidate of theology, Olaf Mathison spent some time in the Kansas parish. He conducted services at St. Luke’s but was not called to be Pastor.
From 1901 to 1902, Pastor Mathison served at Washburn, North Dakota. Later, he joined the Methodist Church.
THE NEXT FIFTY YEARS 1902 - 1956
Peter Olson Eggen was born in Norway. He immigrated to America and was ordained in 1902.
Peter Olson Eggen began serving at St. Luke’s in 1902, the first pastor to be called by the church after Pastor N. Hanen’s resignation in 1897. St. Luke’s was Pastor Eggen’s first church.
The parsonage at Jamestown had been sold so a tract of land with a dwelling house, nearly a mile northeast of the church, was purchased for a parsonage. The old “west church,” which had not been used for services for several years, was torn down and the rock hauled to this new tract and built into a barn for the Pastor’s team. Pastor Eggen moved into the new parsonage in April 1904. This parsonage near the church was used during Pastor Eggen’s pastorate.
Pastor Eggen started a young people’s society at St. Luke’s. Young people from the congregation and others from the community met in the church every two weeks. The evening meetings included religious and literary programs. These meetings continued for some time. The church also tried to have monthly social meetings for the young people. Those meetings were held in the homes of church members but did not meet with much success.
Peter Olson Eggen resigned and preached his farewell sermon at St. Luke’s on October 21, 1906. He accepted a call to preach at another church and left for Williams County, North Dakota in early November.
Peter Olson Eggen died in 1949 and is buried in the Mohall Cemetery, Cut Bank Township, Bottineau County, North Dakota.
In 1906, the congregations of St. Luke’s and Our Savior’s Lutheran Church at Norway formed a new parish that did not include the Glasco or St. John’s churches. C. L. Rachie became the first pastor of this new parish on February 3, 1907.
Christian Lassessen Rachie was born March 29, 1866 in Norway. He immigrated to America in 1871 and married Petra Susanna Matson in 1896.
Pastor Rachie preached many services in the “English” or “American” language at St. Luke’s.
Pastor Rachie accepted a call from a congregation in Brown County, Kansas, and preached his farewell sermon at St. Luke’s on September 4, 1910. He went on to serve in Naples, South Dakota, Granite Falls, Minnesota, and Mapleton, Minnesota.
Christian Lassessen Rachie died in 1947 and is buried with his wife in the Hillcrest Cemetery, Granite Falls, Yellow Medicine County, Minnesota.
Olaf Rasmussen Svore was born in Norway in 1876. He immigrated to America in 1882 and married Hedvig Clausen on June 27, 1909 in Minnesota.
O. R. Svore became the pastor at St. Luke’s in 1910. During Pastor Svore’s time at St. Luke’s, a belfry was added to the church. The belfry was dedicated in the fall of 1913 during a Circuit Luther League convention held at the church.
Pastor Svore was one of the first pastors at St. Luke’s to offer regular services in both Norwegian and English. The Norwegian service was usually held at 11 a.m. and the service in English began at 8 p.m.
Pastor Svore and his family lived in the parsonage at Norway. The St. Luke’s parsonage northeast of the church was sold around 1913 and the proceeds were later used to buy an interest in the parsonage at Norway.
A son was born to the pastor and his wife on December 29, 1911. By 1912, Pastor Svore was using his Ford automobile to travel between Norway and St. Luke’s when the roads permitted. In January 1914, Pastor Svore’s automobile was a part of the first automobile funeral procession in the area. An automobile hearse led that funeral procession from Norway to Concordia.
Pastor Svore resigned from St. Luke’s in May 1915 and preached his farewell service on May 30th. He sold his driving team and the family made the trip to their new home in Milan, Minnesota by automobile. The trip took just four days. Pastor Svore became the first resident pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church in Milan.
The Svore family moved to Bismarck, North Dakota in 1953 and Rev. Svore died there in October 1955. His wife, Hedvig (Clausen) Svore, was a Danish translator and a published historical author. She was honored as the North Dakota Mother of the Year in 1959.
The pastor and his wife are buried in Fairview Cemetery, Bismarck, Burleigh County, North Dakota.
Rasmus Henricksen Wareberg was born in 1873 in Norway and came to the United States when he was eight years old. He was ordained in 1905, the same year he married Anna Otelia Gilbertson in Jackson County, Wisconsin. They had four children, two of whom were born while he was the pastor at St. Luke’s.
Pastor Wareberg preached his first sermon at St. Luke’s on September 12, 1915. In addition to St. Luke’s, the pastor also served the Lutheran churches in Norway and Mankato.
The Luther Leagues from St. Luke’s, Ada Lutheran, Scandia, Norway and Concordia held a Luther League Rally at the Ada Lutheran Church on June 24, 1917. The Rally was opened by the Kackley Orchestra. Pastor Wareberg gave the morning address.
Pastor Wareberg resigned as pastor in early March 1920 and the family moved to Lansing, Iowa in April.
Rasmus Henricksen Wareberg died in 1938 and is buried in the Waterville Lutheran Church Cemetery, Allamakee County, Iowa.
Christen Hansen Hjortholm was born in 1865 in Denmark. He married Caroline Hannah Lobenstein in 1889 but she died in 1913. In 1915, he married Mina Theodora (Christianson) Severson, a widow with three children.
Pastor Christen Hansen Hjortholm of Clermont, Iowa, accepted the charge at St. Luke’s and preached his first sermon at the church on Sunday, August 28, 1921.
Pastor Hjortholm was an orator and frequent speaker at community events, including delivering high school commencement addresses, the program at the Norway Father-Son Banquet, and even speaking at the 1925 Annual Anti-Horse Thief Picnic held at Norway. He also served as a judge in Norway.
In 1925, Pastor Hjortholm met President Calvin Coolidge and his wife at the Norse-American Centennial held in Minneapolis, Minnesota. While in Minnesota, he also attended the Norse-American Century Luther League Convention and the Annual Church Business Meeting as well as a 50th Anniversary celebration at one of his former churches in Ellsworth, Iowa.
In 1927, Pastor Hjortholm accepted a call from a church in Eureka, Kansas. He installed T. Orlin Torgeson as the new pastor at St. Luke’s before he and his wife moved to Eureka.
Christen Hansen Hjortholm died in 1939 in Iowa. He is buried with his second wife, Mina, in Gods Acres Cemetery, Clermont, Fayette County, Iowa.
Thomas Orlin Torgeson was born in 1894 in Iowa. He was ordained in 1926 and married Ragnhild Gulbraa in 1928 in Wallace, South Dakota.
Pastor Torgeson came to Kansas from Manly, Iowa. He was installed and held his first service at St. Luke’s on July 1, 1928. In October that same year, he led a three-day Circuit Meeting at St. Luke’s. Six sessions involving four pastors were held on October 26, 27, and 28. The collected offering was $53.50.
Pastor Torgeson’s annual report in the Ministerial Logbook recorded 46 services were held at St. Luke’s Church in 1936 while 37 services were held in 1937. His farewell service at St. Luke’s was held on September 25, 1938.
Pastor Torgeson graduated from Luther Theological Seminary, St. Paul, Minnesota. According to his obituary, he served parishes at Buffalo Center, Iowa; Norway, Kansas; Parkside, Saskatchewan, Canada; Lawler, Iowa and Watford City, North Dakota. He also served as an interim pastor of parishes in Chicago and Milwaukee.
Thomas Orlin Torgeson died November 15, 1963 as a result of injuries from an automobile accident in Midland, Texas. He is buried beside his wife in Saint Pauli Cemetery, Wallace, Codington County, South Dakota.
Vetle Olafson Aaker was born in 1885 in Norway. He immigrated to America in 1907, graduated from seminary in Minnesota in 1915, and married Emma A. Felland in 1917.
Pastor V. O. Aaker was installed at St. Luke’s Church by the District President on June 18, 1939. In the Ministerial Logbook, the pastor reported that 28 congregation services were held in 1940. He also recorded that the St. Luke’s Sunday School met every Sunday in 1940 and the Ladies Aid had met once a month that year. Pastor Aaker was also instrumental in forming a new Lutheran congregation in Concordia.
Pastor Aaker resigned from the parish including St. Luke’s Church on November 16, 1941. He underwent an operation on December 23rd and did not go home from the hospital until January 21, 1942. The pastor and his family left for Cambridge, Wisconsin on February 24, 1942.
The couple had three daughters, two of whom later married local men: Irene Marcella – Mrs. Archie N. Brewer of Belleville and Valborg E. “Vallie” – Mrs. Donald Hutchinson of Jamestown. Pastor Aaker came back to the area periodically, presenting the July 7, 1946 service at St. Luke’s as a guest speaker. He also preached at St. Luke’s on May 4, 1952 and December 18, 1955. He was living in Dallas, Wisconsin in 1955.
Vetle Olafson Aaker died in an automobile-train crash on November 23, 1959 at New Richmond, Wisconsin. His wife died in May 1986 at Jamestown, Kansas. Both are buried in the Moe Lutheran Cemetery, Clear Lake, Polk County, Wisconsin near where his wife was born.
Conrad Nathan Halvorson was born in Madagascar in 1904. He married Gladys A. Hanson in 1930.
Conrad Nathan Halverson served as an American Lutheran missionary to southeast Madagascar from 1932 to 1961. He was home on furlough when he served briefly at St. Luke’s Church.
Pastor Halvorson conducted nine services and attended two Ladies Aid meetings at St. Luke’s from February 15th to May 31st, 1942.
Conrad Nathan Halvorson and his wife left for Minnesota in early June 1942.
Conrad Nathan Halvorson died on February 12, 1974 and is buried beside his wife in Oaklawn Cemetery, Northfield, Rice County, Minnesota.
Note: American Lutheran church missions to Madagascar began in 1888. Pastor Halverson’s parents served as missionaries to Madagascar from 1897 – 1916.
Oliver Laurentius (Lars) Norman Wigdahl was born in 1885 in Iowa. He was ordained as a Lutheran minister in 1911 and married Galena Amanda Hanson in 1916.
Pastor Oliver Laurentius (Lars) Norman Wigdahl was serving at Trinity Lutheran Church, Mason City, Iowa when a call was issued from St. Luke’s on December 26, 1941. However, he could not come to St. Luke’s until June 1942.
Pastor Wigdahl was installed as pastor of the parish by the President of the Iowa District, Dr. N. Astrup Larsen. At that time, the parish consisted of St. Luke’s and the Lutheran churches in Norway and Mankato. The salary promised to Pastor Wigdahl was to be provided as follows: Norway - $500, St. Luke’s - $250; Mankato - $150 and Iowa District Home Mission Committee - $800. The pastor held services in four churches until the new Lutheran church in Concordia and the church in Mankato each decided to call a resident pastor.
The pastor’s farewell sermon at St. Luke’s was preached on November 9, 1947.
Oliver Laurentius (Lars) Norman Wigdahl died on October 3, 1981 and is buried beside his wife in Crown Hill Cemetery, Ruthven, Palo Alto County, Iowa.
Melvin Norman Tatley was born in Saskatchewan, Canada on December 31, 1905. He was still single in the 1930 U.S. Census. He married Gertrude Johanna Irene Einsler and their son, Herbert Melvin, was born in 1937 in Minnesota.
Pastors Tatley and Oliver L. N. Wigdahl taught a Sunday School teacher training class together in 1946. Pastor Tatley “of Mankato” also gave a sermon at St. Luke’s Church on October 19, 1947. The Tatley family was living in Mankato when the 1950 US Census was taken.
Melvin Norman Tatley died on October 16, 1987 and is buried with his wife in the Oaklawn Cemetery, Northfield, Rice County, Minnesota.
Henry Severt (Severin) Bly was born in Minnesota in 1891. He was ordained in 1920 and married Anna Nicolene Kildahl that same year.
Pastor Henry Severt (Severin) Bly was installed at St. Luke’s Church on November 14, 1948, having come from Redfield, South Dakota on November 10th. Pastor Bly wrote in the Ministerial Logbook that “nothing but English was used” during his installation service.
Pastor Bly was the first pastor to type his records, which were then attached to pages in the St. Luke’s Ministerial Logbook. His record of services includes sermon names and scriptures used.
In August 1956, the pastor noted that he had vacationed in Minnesota. He preached the closing service at St. Luke’s on December 30, 1956.
From Pastor Bly’s typed notes:
“Services at The Oscar Kaad Home, after The Annual Fellowship Dinner and The Short Ladies’ Aid Meeting. This meeting CLOSED the Services of The Congregation that has been a DEAR Spiritual Mother to so many, for ALMOST 80 years. BLESSED be your memory, Dear St. Luke’s Congregation! But you SHALL ARISE SOME DAY! God be with you till we meet THEN!” Signed, H. Severin Bly, Pastor
Henry Severt (Severin) Bly died on February 2, 1984 and is buried beside his wife in Oaklawn Cemetery, Northfield, Rice County, Minnesota.