far as we know, were not Lutherans. A Danish sailor, Hansen, from Copenhagen, became a member of the Mormon church in Boston about 1845. He was in the Mormon exodus to the Great Salt Lake in 1847, and came through the Nebraska wilderness.
   The next Danes that came through Nebraska were gold diggers on their way home from far off California.
   The first Danes that settled in Nebraska were apostates from Mormonism, some before they came to Utah, and a good many more, after they had been there, and it was possible for them to get back or away. A great many of those settled in Omaha and vicinity, Fremont, Grand Island, etc. The first, or one of the first, Lutheran preachers in Nebraska was pastor Grove Rasmussen, mentioned in a former part of this sketch, who made a tour of investigation in 1871, through the central states of the United States. He preached to Danes both in Omaha and Grand Island, and was the main speaker at a Fourth of July celebration at Grand Island. There he met with some of the Danish pioneers on their way to their new colony in Howard county. They wanted him to go with them and take a claim and become their pastor, but he declined and returned to Denmark.
   The first Lutheran preacher that settled in Nebraska, was Anders F. Andersen, a young Danish layman who had taken a course at high school in the old country and came to the United States in 1873, to work at his trade. He was a carpenter and preached the gospel to his countrymen. He offered his services to the Danish ministers in Wisconsin, and was sent to Omaha, Nebraska. Andersen's first acquaintance with the far West was not of the most pleasant kind. He barely escaped having his pockets picked at Council Bluffs, and in Omaha he found but very few Danes that had any use for preaching and preachers of any kind. Andersen went to work on the railroad, had a shanty built near the old Union Pacific station, and there he preached to those who cared to come and hear him. In 1874 there were quite a number of young Danes in Omaha who went to Kearney county and took land.
   Andersen went with them and took a claim in company with his brother. From time to time he went out on preaching tours, and came as far east as Washington county. Went on foot from there to the Danish settlement north of Fremont, often barefoot with stockings and shoes over his shoulder and staff in hand. He was a good speaker, and well liked by those who were friends of the Gospel. He visited most of the Danish settlements in Nebraska and also in northern Kansas. He was too poor to buy horses, so he broke prairie with a span of young bulls. For that reason a Danish paper in Omaha nicknamed him, "the bull preacher." His health not being strong he went to the Pacific coast and finally settled in Eugene, Oregon, where he died in 1911.
   The first ordained Danish minister who settled in Nebraska was the Rev. H. Hansen, mentioned above. He settled in Omaha in 1874 and with great effort he succeeded to, get a church built on St. Mary's avenue. Hansen was an indefatigable worker, and with his span of small ponies he drove up and preached for the Danes in Washington, Burt, Dodge, and Seward counties and other places. Sometimes both he and the ponies came near drowning or freezing to death, but he generally managed to meet his appointments in spite of all hindrances. Having lost his congregation in Omaha, through machinations upon which here is no place to enter, Rev. Hansen was called to a new congregation near Hampton, Hamilton county, where he worked for a number of years. He became the first president of the new church body of 1884. He now lives retired in Fresno, California.
   Rev. A. M. Andersen settled in Daneborg, Howard county, also in 1874, the first pastor at that place. It was in the days of small things at that place. The parsonage consisted of two small rooms, and its furniture had cost $24. But the young parson's charge was certainly large enough. He preached besides in Dannebrog, at Oak Creek, now Nysted, Turkey Creek, Munson Creek, Hampton, Hamilton county, Staplehurst, Seward county, and in Spring Creek, now Ruskin, in Nuckolls county, only 120 miles away. Before starting

out on this long trip the pastor was careful to provide himself with a substantial lunch and oats or corn for the mule, if such was available, which quite often it was not, for these were the years of the grasshoppers. When the minister and his mule had gone long enough to feel tired they halted, the pastor eating part of his provision while the mule did its best to get a lunch grazing on the road. This had to be repeated several times before reaching their destination. More than once they had to pass the night on the road when the mud was deep and rivers swollen and bridges gone. Happy were the travelers if they could find a homestead not too far away, for that meant lodging under cover for them both. Hotels and feed stables they had to pass by, if such could be found, for money and pioneer preachers but seldom were found together. Forty dollars a year from each place was a big salary for a preacher in those days, if not for him, certainly from the standpoint of the poor homesteaders. But great was the joy when the preacher came, even if two days too late. The narrow schoolhouse was packed with eager listeners to his sermon, and the preacher forgot all his troubles on the road, and made announcement for the next meeting, so many weeks or months ahead.
   These meetings in the poor and small schoolhouses on the prairie were one of the few bright spots in the hard life of the early settlers in western Nebraska, and are looked back upon as such by the old pioneers.
   We might keep on relating incidences from the lives of several other pioneer preachers, but it is time to close. There are at present between fifty and sixty Danish Lutheran congregations within the state of Nebraska; of these more than two-thirds belong to the United Church, the rest to the Danish Church. The oldest congregation belonging to the United Church is in Hampton, Nebraska, (1874), the largest is in Ruskin, Nebraska. There are twenty-five ministers and some lay missionaries of the United Church and eight ministers of the Danish Church in the state.
   There is now a movement on foot to unite the two Danish Lutheran church bodies in America, and it seems likely that such, union will be accomplished in the near future.

   In 1858, Rev. Henry W. Kuhns, D.D., left Pittsburgh, and after nineteen days of continuous traveling, he arrived in Omaha, then an Indian trading post, with a commission in his pocket from the Allegheny Lutheran

H. W. KUHNS, D.D.

Synod, appointing him as "the representative of the Evangelical Lutheran church to Nebraska and adjacent parts." A glance at the old Mitchell geography, then in use, will show the sweeping character of that commission. On horseback he rode over the district assigned him, caring for the twenty-six places where he had organized congregations or established preaching stations. His work took him to Yankton, Dakota, on the north, to. Leavenworth and Lawrence, Kansas, on the south, and as far west as Laramie, Wyoming. All through this region he cared for the varied interests of the Lutheran church and in very many places

he secured church lots that are in use today by English, German, or Scandinavian Lutheran churches. This was before the day of church boards in the denomination, and Rev. A. W. Lilly, D.D., president of the board of church extension, recognized it as laying the foundation for the present work of the church. It was the beginning of things, and pioneer work in home missions.
   The first Lutheran church organized in Nebraska was "Emmanuel Evangelical Lutheran Church, Omaha," now known as the Kountze Memorial. The first church building erected and dedicated was that in Dakota City. The contractor was Augustus Haase, who is still living. This church building, one of the oldest, if not the oldest remaining in which English services are held, is still standing. The first German Lutheran church organized was at Fontenelle. Rev. Dr. Kuhns met Hon. Henry Sprick in the store of James G. Megeath, Omaha. In Mr. Sprick's ox wagon

FIRST LUTHERAN CHURCH BUILDING IN NEBRASKA

Erected at Dakota City in 1860 by Augustus Haase, who is still living there. Rev. Henry W. Kuhns was the first missionary pastor of this church and was succeeded by Rev. Samuel Aughey. The building is still standing, and is probably the oldest church building belonging to any denomination in Nebraska.

 

he returned with him to Fontenelle and in Mr. Sprick's log house, with the assistance of Dr. Augustus Roeder, of Emmanuel Lutheran Church, Omaha, Dr. Kuhns organized this German Lutheran church. Remains of the old log house are still standing in the little village, while a splendid brick church, a fine parochial school building, and an excellent parsonage tell the story of progress.
   After Dr. Kuhns had labored in Nebraska alone for some four or five years he suceeded (sic) in inducing Rev. J. F. Kuhlman to come to his assistance, and later Rev. J. G. Groenmiller, D.D. Both of these ministers were from the Allegheny Lutheran Synod. By their coming the work was strengthened. Mr. Kuhlman and Mr. Groenmiller cared for the German-English and German work of the church, and Dr. Kuhns was enabled to devote his time to the church in Omaha now demanding his exclusive services. Mr. Kuhlman's labors were largely, though not exclusively, in the northern

part of the state, while Dr. Groenmiller labored in southern Nebraska and northern Kansas. Some time later Rev. Samuel Aughey, Ph.D., LL.D., at onetime professor of sciences in the University of Nebraska, Rev. Josiah Zimmerman, and Rev. Eli Huber, professor of biblical literature in Pennsylvania College, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, were added to the force of workers.
   It is a notable fact that in Nebraska today there are about 532 organizations, 300 church edifices, and 39,850 communicant members of the Lutheran church. Beside, there is a Lutheran constituency of 31,125 Germans and 16.685 Scandinavians alone in the state, according to the best statistics at hand. There is one theological seminary, one deaconess motherhouse, one hospital, two orphan homes, five academies giving instruction in the normal and advanced grades of education, and one publication house. Besides these the Nebraska Synod was instrumental in establishing the Theological Seminary of the General Synod at Atchison, Kansas, and Midland College at the same place.
   On the 27th of April, 1871, a meeting of General Synod Lutheran ministers was held in Emmanuel Lutheran Church, Omaha, to take preliminary steps toward organizing a synod for Nebraska. Four years after its organization it was received into the General Synod at the biennial convention held in Baltimore in May, 1875. The first president was Rev. J. F. Kuhlman, Dakota City; Rev. Ira C. Billman of Omaha was the first secretary, and John B. Detwiler, also of Omaha, was the first treasurer of the synod; and Rev. A. G. R. Buetow was the first candidate ordained to the Gospel ministry. At West Point, September 20, 1877, the district conference was established. At Nebraska City, October 10, 1878, steps were taken to organize a woman's home and foreign missionary society. At Ponca, in 1884, a preamble and resolutions were adopted, praying the General Synod to appoint a board of education. This movement resulted in establishing the General Synod's board of education, having the fostering care of the Western Theological Seminary and also Midland College at Atchison, Kansas, which are of great importance to the church in Nebraska. In 1876 they petitioned the General Synod for the appointment of a committe (sic) for a liturgy in full accord with the spirit of the period of the Reformation. In 1886 a traveling secretary, or missionary was established and headquarters for this work was built in Omaha. Rev. C. Huber filled this position from 1887 to October 26, 1893. In 1890 fifteen German pastors withdrew from this now exclusively

REV. LUTHER M. KUHNS

English body to form the German Nebraska Synod.
   Today the Lutheran church is represented in Nebraska by the following synods, viz: Nebraska Synod, the Danish in America, Danish United Lutheran church, German Iowa, German Nebraska, Hauges, Missouri, Norwegian in America, United Norwegian, joint Synod of Ohio, Augustana, and Wisconsin synod; in all twelve synods, besides at least seven independent congregations with four churches and 800 members.
   The German Nebraska Synod was organized at Sterling, Johnson County, Nebraska, in July, 1890, Rev. Julius Wolff, president. On September 8, 1891, in accordance with the action of

the General Synod at Lebanon, Pennsylvania, this body was received into its fellowship. In connection with the Wartburg Synod and under the auspices of the General Synod it supports a church publication society and a traveling missionary. Its official organ is the Lutherischer Zionsboti. It has ninety organizations and 5,536 members, and is growing very rapidly.
   The Danish in America Synod has an academy at Nysted. It was established in 1887 In its conception it is Grundvigian. Rev. R. R. Dorf, a graduate of the University of Christiana, is its principal. It has a good building, a large campus, and is quite successful. The Danish United Synod was organized in 1896 and is represented in Nebraska by a number of institutions. Blair is the center of its activities. Trinity Seminary, its theological institution, is located here. There are four professors and eleven students. Its library contains over four hundred volumes. Rev. P. S. Vig is the president. It was established in 1886. In 1899, at the same place they founded Blair College. Its property is valued at $25,000, its library contains 1,000 volumes, it has eight professors and ninety-six students. Rev. Christian Auker is the president. Here, too, is located its publishing house which employs not less than twenty-one men. The periodicals published are Dansk

GERMAN LUTHERAN SEMINARY

Luthersk Kirkeblad, Rev. A. M. Andersen, editor, founded in 1898, a weekly; Danskern, weekly; Boornebladet, and De Unges Blad, both semi-monthly publications.
   These two Danish bodies represent about sixty organizations in the state. The three different Norwegian synods have about fifty-seven organizations, and upwards of 1,700 members in Nebraska. But they have no institutions, or publications that are distinctively identified with Nebraska. They do have as synods splendid institutions and fine publications, but they are located in other states. This is true, too, of the work of the joint Synod of Ohio and of the German Iowa Synod with their twenty-five or more organizations and 1,200 members. Thus five synods, three Norwegian and two German, have so far confined their work in the state to their congregations and missions, and exhibit remarkable growth.
   The Missouri Synod, the largest German synod in the United States, has two flourishing institutions in Nebraska. In 1894 they established a "school teachers' seminary" at Seward, Nebraska. This academy has property valued at $18,000, and there are three instructors and sixty-six students. Rev. Geo. Weller is the principal. Beside this the Missouri Synod supports the Evangelical Lutheran Orphan Home at Fremont, Nebraska. This

charitable institution was founded in 1893, and Rev. A. Leuthaeuser is its superintendent. Its property is valued at $15,500, its endowment is $5,000, and it has forty inmates. Lately this synod has undertaken English work in this state. Its strength in Nebraska is limited to about 175 organizations and 18,000 communicants. The joint Synod of Ohio, the German Iowa, and Missouri synods are strictly confessional, and exclusive in their church relations. They are zealous missionary bodies.
   The Swedish Augustana synod, which was organized in 1860, and some time after its organization began work in Nebraska, is a very aggressive Lutheran body. It has done considerable to promote church life in the state. In 1890 its greatest strength centered in Saunders, Otoe, Phelps, Nemaha, and Polk counties, and it was well represented in forty-one counties in Nebraska. It has gone, without noise, steadily forward and numbers to-day about 100 organizations and 10,000 members. In 1883 it founded Luther Academy at Wahoo, Nebraska, of which Rev. O. J. Johnson is president. It has a fine campus, a number of substantial buildings, nine professors, 130 students, a library of over 2,000 volumes, and its property is valued at $75,000. Beside the buildings already on the campus a splendid modern building, costing $25,000, will soon be completed. In the northern part of Omaha this synod has Immanuel Hospital, founded in 1890, Immanuel Deaconess Motherhouse, founded in the same year, and Immanuel Orphan Home, established in 1901. The founder and manager of these splendid institutions was Rev. E. A. Fogelstrom. This year a ward for incurables was added to these institutions. They have five acres of ground, high and sightly. Sixteen orphans are in the home, and there are thirty-two sisters connected with the motherhouse, who are at work either in the hospital, the orphanage, the new ward for incurables, in the congregations of the synod, or elsewhere out in the field engaged in charitable work. The cost of maintenance at present is approximately $15,000 a year, but with the continued growth from year to year of necessity the expenses will increase. It is a most Christian work.
   As matter of history a few additional items may be added to this limited sketch. The German Iowa synod early in the '60s established a station on the Deer creek, Nebraska, among the Cheyenne Indians. Three Indian boys were given them to be educated. Their missionary, Krebs, translated Luther's catechism into the Cheyenne tongue. In 1863 they had begun to preach in the Cheyenne language, when the Sioux persuaded the Indians in Nebraska to go upon the war-path. On the approach of a band of Sioux, intending to murder them, the missionaries withdrew. Thus ended the only effort of the Lutheran church to establish an Indian mission in Nebraska.
   By the generous offer of the citizens of Homer in 1886 Homer Academy was started under Lutheran auspices. Subsequently it was removed to Wayne. After a few sessions its affairs were concluded in 1890.
   On September 24, 1883, the American Lutheran Immigrant Missionary Society was organized at Tekamah. In connection with this a Lutheran address center was established. While not very active, its members are still interested in the work of the society. Prof. A. M. Andersen, Blair, Nebraska, is the corresponding secretary at this writing. It is gratifying to know that this association proved helpful to many of the Lutheran diaspora.
   From small beginnings the Lutheran church in Nebraska has grown to splendid proportions. In every branch of the church's work, missionary, educational, and church extension, there is push and vigor. It is estimated by statisticians that Nebraska has a constituent Lutheran population of 275,000, of all nationalities, and from the older states of the Union. With such a field the future of this denomination in Nebraska is particularly bright.

   In 1856 several churchmen in Omaha addressed to Bishop Lee of Iowa an earnest request to visit them with reference to form-

ing a parish here. The bishop deputed the Rev. Edward W. Peet, rector of St. Paul's, Des Moines, to this errand. Soon after Easter in that year Dr. Peet undertook the journey from his home, reaching Council Bluffs on Saturday, the 12th of April. During the next week he came over the river and visited the church people. On the evening of Saturday he met eight or ten gentlemen, who, with his advice, organized a parish under the name of Trinity Church, adopting articles of parochial association and selecting a vestry. Plans were discussed for the purchase of a lot for a church and for securing a priest at an early day. On Sunday morning Dr. Peet preached in the territorial government house on Ninth street between Farnam and Douglas, but which has been destroyed. The room was crowded and interest in the enterprise was general.
   At that time Kansas and Nebraska were within the jurisdiction of Bishop Kemper. In 1835 this venerable man was, by the General Convention of the Episcopal Church in the United States, elected a bishop to exercise jurisdiction in Missouri and Indiana. Afterwards, when dioceses were formed in those states and the new regions in the Northwest were, one after another, settled, his jurisdiction was extended to them successively, until in 1856 the two new territories, Kansas and Nebraska, were the remnant of the vast domain over which he had held sway. Hearing of Dr. Peet's visit to Omaha and its results, Bishop Kemper felt the old fires of missionary zeal burn within him, and he soon started from his home in Wisconsin for the new lands. On his way hither he met Bishop Lee at Des Moines, and the two arrived here on Friday, the 11th of July. On Sunday, that being the eighth Sunday after Trinity, services were held in the government building. In the morning the prayers were read by the Rev. Mr. Irish of St. Joseph, Missouri, and the ante-communion service by Bishop Kemper, at whose invitation Bishop Lee preached. Bishop Kemper preached in the afternoon. Shortly afterward Bishop Kemper resigned his missionary jurisdiction, and Nebraska was placed in the episcopal care of Bishop Lee; he continued to exercise jurisdiction until the General Convention in 1859. During this time there were three priests and three parishes in Nebraska, namely, the Rev. George W. Watson, rector of Trinity, Omaha; the Rev. Eli Adams, rector of St. Mary's, Nebraska City; and the Rev. Dr. Stephen C. Massock of Arago. The first church edifice in the state was St. Mary's, Nebraska City. It was a beautiful church, situated in a very romantic spot in the valley between what was then Nebraska City and Kearney City. A lovely stream of pure water flowed by it and a bit of wood enfolded it in rural solitude. It was long since removed from that spot to the town, and now forms a part of the present St. Mary's.
   In 1859 the General Convention met at Richmond, Virginia, and elected the Rev. Joseph C. Talbot, rector of St. Paul's, Indianapolis, missionary bishop of the Northwest, with jurisdiction over what is now Nebraska, the two Dakotas, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, Utah, and Nevada -- a total of 750,000 square miles. He came to Nebraska in 1860. In 1865 he was translated from the mission to Indiana. The most important part of his work that remains visible to the human eye is Brownell Hall, the only college for girls in Nebraska. In 1861 he purchased six acres in Saratoga, now North Omaha, on which was a good building designed and for a short time used as a hotel. He agreed to pay $3,500 for the property and went cast to collect the money. A daughter of Bishop Brownell gave part of the money, on account of which Bishop Talbot gave it its name. Some further money was raised to put the building in repair, and it was furnished by people living in Omaha. From the first the school was well supported, and although the most careful economy was necessary it was of a good order.
   Bishop Talbot left eight clergymen in the service. Besides these Dr. Massock was on the roll, but he had become disabled and had retired to Covington, Kentucky.
   The General Convention of 1865 divided the jurisdiction of the Northwest into three, one

of which was Nebraska and Dakota, to the episcopate of which Bishop Clarkson was elected. He was consecrated in his parish church of St. James, Chicago, on the 15th of November and began his service the following spring. He purchased Bishop Talbot's home, a tract of forty acres a little out of Nebraska City, and lived there about a year. He then converted the house and property into a school, under the name of Talbot Hall, and removed to Omaha.
   The first three years of Bishop Clarkson's episcopate were three years of rapid growth. From his consecration in 1865 to the organization of the diocese in 1868, the number of active clergy went up from eight to sixteen. At the latter date there were ten candidates for orders, 700 communicants, property of the estimated value of $123,000, and three church schools.
   At the expiration of that time the missionary jurisdiction was organized as a diocese, and the council placed it under the full charge of Bishop Clarkson. Two years afterward it elected him bishop of Nebraska. Practically this action did not change his work, but it did change his status. As missionary bishop he could, on his election to the episcopate of any other diocese, have been translated thereto. As bishop of Nebraska this was not permissible. Now he was irrevocably bound to Nebraska for life. He continued missionary bishop of Dakota, and afterward Niobrara was added to his jurisdiction, with the care of the Indians in southern Dakota. In a few years he was relieved of that care by the election of Bishop Hare. He held jurisdiction in Dakota until the convention of 1883.
   When the diocese was organized the bishop reported three church schools. One was St. James Hall at Fremont, for which quite a large building was erected, and the school was opened and conducted for a period with a measure of success. But when the Rev. Mr. Dake, who had the enterprise in charge, resigned the parish at Fremont it languished, and after a brief period was abandoned. Bishop Clarkson was no farther responsible for the enterprise or committed to it than by his desire for its success and the encouragement he gave to Mr. Dake.
   Another of the educational institutions in which the bishop was very much more interested, and to which he gave his best efforts, was Nebraska College. When he first came here, as has been stated, he purchased from his predecessor a tract of forty acres of. land not far from Nebraska City and made his home there for a year, when he devoted the property to a boys' school, which he called Talbot Hall. Afterwards the school was erected into a college, and in connection with it plans for a divinity school were formed. It seeming desirable to reach a larger number of day scholars, the school was removed into the town and carried on for a period with varied success. Considerable debts were contracted, the location of the school became somewhat inaccessible from other parts so that its patronage was local, and it was reduced to its former condition of a boys' school, and at last, after the death of Bishop Clarkson, was abandoned. Property was purchased in Nebraska City for a divinity school, and several candidates for orders were instructed at the college. The original plan contemplated an institution of which the Rev. Dr. Oliver was to be the dean. Other instruction was to be given by clergy of the diocese. After the bishop's death Dr. Oliver removed from Nebraska City, and it seemed impracticable to sustain the institution, the property was sold and the proceeds invested, the income of which is applied to theological education.
   Brownell Hall has had a more happy history. In 1868 it was removed from Saratoga to eligible lots in Omaha, upon which a building reasonably satisfactory for the purpose was erected. During Bishop Clarkson's episcopate the school saw some very dark days, and only his buoyant spirit and firm resolution saved it, on more occasions than one, from the fate which has often overtaken unendowed church schools, During the last years of his life his desire was a new site and a larger building for the Hall. He felt that that was