Elling Eielsen papers 1846-1997
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Biography/History:
Elling Eielsen was born and raised on the farm of Sundve in Voss, Norway. The son of Eiel Ingebrigtsen Sundve and Anna Ellingsdatter Sundsvaal. In Norway, he was brought up in the Lutheran religious tradition of Hans Nielsen Hauge. From 1832-1839, he was a lay preacher who toured around Norway, Sweden, and Denmark, where he was often met with opposition and eventually faced imprisonment
Eielsen immigrated to the United States in 1839 first settling in the Fox River Settlement, LaSalle County, Illinois. In 1843, he was formally ordained as a Lutheran minister by Francis Arnold Hoffmann, a German Lutheran pastor. The Eielsen Synod (originally named the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America) was founded at the Jefferson Prairie settlement, Wisconsin, in 1846 by Elling Eielsen. Eielsen is considered the first Norwegian Lutheran minister in the United States.
Scope and Content:
Copies of his baptism and confirmation records; Eielsen's certificate of ordination and of letters by him (1836-1862); transcripts of a 15-page typescript article titled "Haugianer Folket på Sundve Fraasegnuppskrifter" (1931) by Knut Bjørgaas; a thesis (208 pages, 1932) titled "Elling Eielsen: Pioneer Lay Preacher and First Norwegian Lutheran Pastor in America" by Clarence J. Carlsen; an Eielsen bibliography by Olaf M. Norlie (106 pages); a Master's thesis (98 pages, 1946) by Ansgar Sovik and his Norway lectures on Eielsen; a list of Eielsen Synod churches and ministers; and assorted articles, clippings, and pamphlets.