The oldest church in Leland was organized in 1847 under the name of
"Scandinavian Evangelical Lutheran Congregation" in the residence of Holjie
Bakke, the great grandfather of Kinney Kettleson, who now lives about a mile
straight west of Baker on the very same site. Another man who helped to organize
it was Helleck Farley, a great-grandfather of Fremont Farley, who lives not far
away from where the church was organized. It was built in the township of Adams,
La Salle county, Illinois.
When the pioneers of the Norwegian emigrants
left their native shores for the broad plains of America, they took little with
them but their families, their willingness to work and their faith in God.
There were two reasons why the Norwegians were deeply religious. One was it
was so hard for them to make a living. Of those who lived on the western coast
of Norway, between the mountains and ocean, nearly every man there lived mostly
on the fish they caught in the ocean, or were sailors, and met many dangers. In
the eastern part of the country each man had a strip of land which never yielded
enough to give them a living. These hardships and dangers naturally led to faith
in God.
The second reason was they all had a very good drill in religion
even though they had very little schooling, because their mother always taught
them religion. Their mother was their first teacher, the schoolmaster second and
the pastor third.
Every Norwegian who set sail for America placed in his
strong box or traveling bag a bible, a hymn book and a catechism. It was natural
that these pioneers from Norway, who were settling near Leland, organized a
congregation very early.
They held their services in private houses
within the community until 1850. Then in 1856 they decided to build a church
fifty feet long, thirty-two feet wide and eighteen feet high, but the lack of
money kept them from building until 1858. It was built south of Leland and was
painted red.
It was dedicated on the 11th day of December, the same
year. The first pastor was Ole Andrewson, who served as regular pastor for one
year. After that he traveled from Wisconsin to Leland to conduct services in the
local church. Besides the pastor two other ministers came from Chicago to help
him with the dedication services. In the year 1867 the church building was moved
to Leland.
Many young people would walk in crowds a distance of eight
miles to church because they were more than willing to hear a sermon. They would
go to church on Sunday evenings. History tells us that when the first service
was held a woman walked twenty-two miles with a babe in her arms in order to
attend worship in the Leland church.
In 1898 the old church was torn
down and another beautiful church was built. On the second day of July, 1917,
this church was burned down, which was a hard blow, but a meeting was held and
they decided to build another on the same location. A more beautiful church was
built than before. It was ready for the first service in April, 1919.
The Norwegians loved beauty. This is due, no doubt, to the beautiful, natural
scenery in their home — her fjords, her mountains, her glaciers, her forests,
her waterfalls, and her gorgeous midnight sun. This love of beauty is shown
here, for every time they built a new church it became more beautiful than the
old one.
They did not have any choir nor musical instrument in the old
days, but they all sang, with usually one man as leader.
I will close
with a few lines of an old song that has been sung so many, many times in this
Lutheran church:
"Praise to the Lord, Who doth prosper thy work and
defend thee;
Surely, His goodness and mercy here daily attend thee;
Ponder anew
What the Almighty can do
If with His love He befriend thee."
Extracted 08 Nov 2018 by Norma Hass from Stories of Pioneer Days in La Salle County, Illinois, by Grammar Grade Pupils, published in 1932, page 96.
| Lee | DeKalb | Kane |
| Bureau |
 |
Kendall |
| Putnam | Grundy | |
| Marshall | Woodford | Livingston |
