The first Norwegian pioneers did a great job. They fought Indians and tilled the soil, but they found time to build churches and schools and instill their culture and many of their customs into a new and wild country.

On July 4, 1825, the sailing vessel "Restaurationen" left Stavanger, Norway. The little ship was sloop-rigged, the accommodations were poor, and the space for food storage was small. Nevertheless, fifty-two Norwegian men and women embarked, filled with hope and ambition to start new homes in distant America. Some Norwegians had come to America prior to 1825, but they were spread all over the nation. Those who sailed on the "Restaurationen" intended to set up a Norwegian colony; just where they did not know, but they were sure that the new land beyond the Atlantic would have much to 2offer them, and they did not worry. From 1820 to 1860 a total of 36,181 Norwegians and Swedes migrated to America, about half of them Norwegians. From 1861 to 1880, 248,779 Norwegians came to America. It is believed that in 1880 there were more than half a million Norwegians here.

The growth of the Norwegian Lutheran Church was tremendous in those early years. In 1883 there were 310 pastors who served 1,185 congregations, with a total of 193,766 members. Today there are 512,980 members of the Norwegian Lutheran Church. Those who arrived on the "Restaurationen" settled in New York near Rochester. In 1836 the entire group came west, some of them settling in Chicago, others along the Fox River in Illinois.

Elling Eielsen, who came to America in 1839, can truly be called the father of the Norwegian Lutheran Church in America. In 1843 he was ordained by the German Lutheran Church, and thus he became the first Norwegian pastor in 3America. Eielsen was a "Hauganist" in Norway, he later became an enemy of this group and became a "Grundtvigist". On October 18 of the same year, C. L. Clausen was ordained by a Danish preacher; Clausen became the first recognized religious teacher for the Church. He received no salary, but the members of the congregations paid him an "offering" of six cents for every forty acres of land owned by the members of the Church. Later this was increased by adding six cents for every "preempted" eighty acres, and six cents for every "confirmed" single man and woman belonging to the Church.

J. W. E. Dietrickson, who was ordained in Norway, came to America in 1844. His congregation donated forty acres of land for his use, erected buildings, and fenced ten acres of the forty that had been donated. He was paid a salary of $250 a year.

Eielsen purchased a strip of land at Middleport, Fox River, Illinois, where 4he built a small church. On the first floor of this structure he arranged living quarters, on the second floor a meeting hall where he preached two days each week. This was the first church built by Norwegians in America. It was in this house that the first split within the Church developed. This happened on September 29, 1848. The reason was that half of the pastors belonging to the Norwegian Evangelical Lutheran Church proposed to follow the teachings of the Francheon Evangelical Lutheran Synod and to unite with that body.

The first congregation was officially organized on October 18, 1843, at Muskego, Wisconsin. They built a church that measured 40 by 25 by 19 feet. This first real church structure was later moved to the Theological Seminary at St. Anthony Park; there it stands today as a monument to the early activities of the Norwegian Lutheran Church. The Church organized the Norwegian Synod, at Luther Valley [Wisconsin]. In 1851 the Northern Illinois Synod was organized with district headquarters in Chicago. In 1860, after 5some misunderstanding, the Norwegian and Swedish members of the Synod withdrew and formed the Augustana Synod. In 1870 this group again split, and the Norwegian-Danish Conference was born. In 1893 some disgruntled pastors formed the Free Church. Each of these groups are strong, and it is hoped that they will soon unite again.

The first paper published by the Synod was The Monthly Times, beginning in 1851. In 1856 another paper, The Monthly Church News, was started. Forty-three years later The Evangelical Church News was started, and The Monthly Church News was suspended. The Church Organ began its publication in 1862, and in 1868 The Message was published.

The Northern Illinois Synod started a college in Springfield, Illinois--the University of Illinois. Later this college was entirely taken over by the state. In 1854 Eielsen's Seminary was formally opened at Lisbon, Illinois; P. A. Rasmussen was its first principal. Several smaller schools were 6started between 1867 and 1870. In the latter part of 1870, a seminary was built in Chicago at Grand Avenue and Peoria Street, just across the street from the office of Skandinaven. The name given to the school was Hauges College and Eielsens Seminary. Reverend Z. Turgersen became principal, and served as such for several years. The cost of the building was $33,840. In 1879 Red Wing Seminary was opened, and today it is one of the largest schools operated by the Synod. In 1857 the Synod opened Concordia Theological Seminary near St. Louis, and at present it is the Synod's official ministerial school. In the same year, Luther Seminary was built, and in 1888 a new building was erected at Luther, costing $35,000.

The Augustana Synod built the Augustana Seminary in Chicago in 1860. This school moved to Rock Island in 1875. The first home for the aged was built by the Synod in 1880, at Wittenberg, Wisconsin. The first orphanage was opened in Stoughton, Wisconsin in 1888.

The first real attempt at unity was in 1890, and today, after several attempts, it may be possible to iron out all the misunderstandings and form one united church.