Two articles pertaining to Rev. Clausen
Rev. Claus Clausen
By Valerie Kiger
The Post-Bulletin
The Norwegians who settled this region in the mid-19th century brought with them in wagon trains their family possessions, their livestock and the tools to build settlements in Mower County and across southern Minnesota.
They also brought with them their Lutheran faith.
"When the Norwegians came over here, one of the first things they thought of was the church," said Harriet Weness, a lifelong member of Little Cedar Church near Adams.
"They usually brought their Bibles, hymnbooks and catechisms. Those were just part and parcel of them coming over here," said the Rev. Russ Wangen, who is retired from serving Six Mile Grove Church.
What wasn't always available to them was a pastor to minister to them.
But in the Rev. Claus Clausen, four Mower County churches and up to 18 others across the region found a man to fulfill their spiritual needs.
Clausen founded the congregations of Bear Creek, Six Mile Grove, Little Cedar and St. Olaf churches in Mower County, though he wasn't able to serve them and the many others he founded as often as every Sunday.
"They would advertise in a paper when the services were or when he would baptize. There was a lot of variation in when they were served and how often," Wangen said of the early churches.
Though Clausen was Danish, he performed services in the Norwegian language. In the early 20th century, services eventually came to be held in English, though many churches continued to include occasional Norwegian services in their worship schedule.
Many pioneers gathered under large trees or in the homes of church members to hear Clausen's first services and for baptisms and weddings.
Though the four churches founded in Mower County by Clausen share similarities, each has something unique in its history, too.
Bear Creek
The Bear Creek congregation is the oldest in Mower County founded by Clausen. Settlers came to the area, northeast of Grand Meadow, in 1854 and settled along the creek they named after one man shot a bear there, according to Peter Kahl, 48, a church member who lives on land where the original settlers camped as they moved in. His wife is a descendant of those early settlers.
The first services for the congregation were held in 1856 under the branches of a young oak tree.
"It was written that no man shall cut this tree down with an ax," explained Frieda Jensen, 72, a lifetime member of the church. "It was a June day. It was a beautiful day. Then, when our church was 125 years old É in April of that year, we had a lightning storm and that lightning storm took that tree.
"It was the hand of God, not man, but God that took that tree, so it was strange but beautiful that that happened."
The first church building used by the Bear Creek congregation later became a corn crib. Another church was built in 1870.
"We've always been so blessed with our church. We only had one naughty minister. One naughty minister, he really messed up. He'd swear from the pulpit if things didn't go right for him," Jensen said of a pastor who served before she was born. Fifteen families left the church for another until a new, friendlier minister came to serve.
Six Mile Grove
Three years after Clausen organized Bear Creek's congregation, he founded a church at Six Mile Grove east of Lyle.
The church building, built in 1867 and 1868, was constructed with bricks made of local soil.
"Ours is made out of clay from right here in the field halfway between my place and the church," said Glen Aanonson, 80, who has lived within one mile of the church all his life and still attends.
"There was a 13-year-old girl who hauled some of (the bricks) to the church with a team of oxen."
Before the church was established, settlers from Six Mile Grove had to travel to St. Ansgar for baptisms, weddings and other religious celebrations. "Sometimes, I understand, they would walk down there from the Six Mile Grove area," Wangen said.
Aanonson remembers that at Christmas time, "they used to have the Christmas tree and real candles, and a couple of guys would stand up there and watch the candles. They would cover the windows with brown paper and have the tree (lighted) in the afternoon."
The church celebrated its 140th anniversary with a special service last month.
Little Cedar
The Little Cedar congregation paid Clausen $148 per year for 12 church services annually, according to information collected by the church. "They would pile up baptisms and weddings for when he was here," said the Rev. Allen Gunderson, who serves the church now.
Clausen founded the congregation in 1859, and it is now in its fourth church building. The first was built of logs and each family was asked to give a certain number of logs for the church. That building was later dismantled and sold for $75.
A regular frame building was built in 1876, and a third church was built in Adams in 1907. That church burned down, and a new church was built in 1977.
"We're kind of hard on buildings," Gunderson joked.
Though the church has become "Americanized," it originated as a place where Norwegian immigrants could worship much as they had in their home country.
"We used to have a lot of Norwegian services. I talked Norwegian when I started school," said Weness, 83, who was baptized, confirmed and married in the Little Cedar Church. Her ancestors were among the first congregation members, including her grandmother, Hannah Osmundson.
St. Olaf
Disaster struck the church of St. Olaf, too. The congregation, founded in 1867, lost its building in 1928 to a tornado that swept through Austin.
"I was 9 years old," said E. Nathan Johnson, 80, who grew up in Austin and attended St. Olaf. "It took down the steeple and the damage was enough -- that's when the new section of the church was built."
The rebuilt church was of red brick. "It was a typical church of that time," Johnson said. That building was later replaced with one of stone.
At 132 years old, the congregation is the youngest Clausen founded in Mower County and one of the last he founded in the region.
Six Mile Grove Lutheran Church
By Valerie Kiger
The Post-BulletinWhen Six Mile Grove Lutheran Church's congregation turned 140 years old this year, it celebrated with a special service that included Norwegian songs and poems written by members about the early settlers of Mower County.
The congregation of today, some descended from those who first formed the church near Lyle, also remembered one man who answered the call from Six Mile Grove and numerous other area communities seeking a church.
The Rev. Claus Clausen founded Six Mile Grove Church in 1859, in the midst of a church-organizing career that resulted in the formation of at least 22 congregations in the region.
Clausen also founded the churches of Bear Creek, Little Cedar and St. Olaf in Mower County.
Those churches survive today, serving small towns or rural communities.
Little Cedar Church in Adams is one of only two churches there, member Harriet Wangen said. It has recently added a day care program to meet the needs of its young members, and membership is steady.
Six Mile Grove serves 160 members from its building four miles east of Lyle. Though the church, which first met under the branches of a large elm tree, is firmly rooted in history, its future isn't as certain.
Retired Rev. Russ Wangen said the church sometimes struggles to keep membership up in the face of declining rural population.
"I think the question comes up in the minds of people. . .I know certain individuals want to maintain the parish, but others talk about the eventuality of joining with Lyle."
Still, the church and all its history won't disappear, he added.
Claus Laurits Clausen
1820: Born in Denmark
1841 or 1842: Takes a walking tour in Norway to recover from tuberculosis and meets a man whose son lives in Muskego, Wis., where the settlers need a religion teacher.
1843: Arrives in the United States and is ordained in Muskego, Wis.
1853: Leads a wagon train with 70 people to a site where he founds St. Ansgar, Iowa.
1853-67: Founds congregations in southeastern Minnesota and northern Iowa.
1861-62: Serves as a chaplain in the army during the Civil War.
1892: Dies in Austin and is buried in Oakwood Cemetery.
Posted on MnMower 10-1-06