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and wife; Andrew Akeson and wife; Peter Erickson; Andreas Olson and wife; C. J. Lundquist and wife; Bengt Person and wife; Charlie Fletcher (C. J. Johnson) and wife; --- Forsman; Charles P. Carlson and wife; Charles Johnson and wife; Albert Wetterberg; Andrew Berkman and wife; Victor Peterson and wife; August Peterson and wife; Alfred Johnson and wife; Frank Johnson and wife; John Olson and wife; Fred Peterson and wife.

   As members of the church council -- deacons and trustees -- the fol-

lowing men were selected: Andrew Carlson, A. P. Falk, Charles Johnson (Fletcher), John Abrahamson and Peter Ekvall, all dead now but A. P. Falk.

   Frank Johnson was elected the first secretary and A. P. Falk the first treasurer.

   At this meeting Elias Peterson was chosen to represent the congregation at the Kansas Conference, which was to meet in the last part of February, and to ask its admission into that body and the Augustana Synod.

   Settlers were now flocking into the country and new forces were added to the church. In the spring of 1879, at a meeting held in Frank John-

son's home, where B. J. Fahlund presided, the matter of procuring a building site and the erection of a church came up. Andrew Berkman, Carl Jacob Leafgreen and Mr. Forsman each offered to donate a building site.

   After discussing the matter it was ascertained that Berkman's offer, if accepted, would place the church too near the north edge of the settlement, Leafgreen's too near the south, while Forsman's site was deemed

too low and therefore not advisable. A suggestion to try to get forty acres from the Railroad Company for the church was made. This won approval, and a committee was appointed to negotiate for a site on the Southwest Quarter of Section 23, Divide Township. This committee went to work, but as railroad corporations are large bodies and move slowly, negotiations lagged, and John Hokanson was approached and asked if he would not part with five acres for a church site. He was willing and promised to donate the five acres asked. A contract was drawn up stipulating that the land should belong to the congregation as long as it should retain its Lutheran faith, but that it should revert to him if at any time the church should no longer be Lutheran. This was signed by the trustees of the congregation and by Mr. Hokanson. As

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