Keep the map in mind for perspective. You may even want to print it out for YOUR trip to Lindsborg. To the west lies Marquette, where the old AND new story is found. There the lines were early drawn between Augustana and Mission groups, and both have been on the scene till today.
Only recently, the Mission group elected to sever their connections with the Covenant denomination and align themselves with the Evangelical Free church. This is remarkable, because they had done the same thing about a century before! Yes, it was "de ja vu" all over again.
Marquette Community Church, with various loyalties
This was the congregation that had famously put two names in a hat, "Mission" on one and "Free" on the other, and went with the luck of the draw. The 1917 Missionsforening book is more nuanced. There a group is described which is evenly divided among those who favor either Covenant or Free affiliation. They sincerely wrestle with the issue, including much prayer, but there is gridlock. At last they resort to the Biblical, albeit Old Testament, measure of casting lots.
The immediate results were clear, but the outcome was not. For reasons not now discernable, the losers circulated a petition and confronted the winners, successfully removing them from the little missionshus. The displaced then proceded to build their own. This was the Covenant group that made it down to modern times, only to...should we say, "flip-flop."
By speaking with local people, we gain a footnote to this story. One of Marquette's present leaders, a man whom we have met and know as one to be reckoned with, set himself the task of preserving this congregation no matter what. Apparently it is a matter in Marquette of survival...they were on "life support" with the Covenant. Now when your doctor suggests removing the life support...you may want to get a second opinion. Not only has the Free church been enlisted in this cause, but reportedly the Swedish Baptist General Conference had their time with the patient as well. We hope they do survive!
The Elim Lutheran Church was devastated in a 1905 tornado, but endures
There are other stories in Marquette worth telling. The downtown building which became the post office and is currently the museum, was originally built as a Luther League Hall. How this Greek revival temple came to be built defies imagination. Upon its wall were the graduating classes. My wife spotted the picture of Rev. Moreland Adell, my predecessor at Covenant Home in Stromsburg! Friendly residents greeted us on the streets, and insisted we meet the banker, Alan Lindfors, who has written a book on the area.
A most substantial Luther League building!
Marquette was the setting of Rev. A.H. Jacobson's "Adventures of a Prairie Pastor," and though we did not find his grave, is reportedly buried there. This is also true of Mrs. Arden Almquist, another native whose spouse is buried beside his twin brother, lost in youth, at Swedeburg, Nebraska. And for those Marquette residents who were baffled by our queries about which filling station Jacobson owned...turns out it was in Lindsborg. Sorry about that.
Early view displayed at the museum. Elim Lutheran at top left was the tornado victim.
It would be a shame not to tell an A.H. Jacobson story or two, particularly since they can be attributed to a very good source: Rev. David Carlson of our local southwest Iowa ministerium. Carlson has the distinction of having Jacobson as pastor (during an interim at Red Oak), of being a neighboring pastor with him in Kansas, and finally of being HIS pastor at Marquette.
Jacobson would take a bag of books with him on his long morning walks, and would sometimes drop in on someone for a word of witness and a cup of coffee. This was certainly in the Mission colporteur tradition whether deliberately or not. He also would frequent the Co-op, the local gathering place for farmers, for a bit of political dialogue. During one of these sessions, someone slipped a couple of ears of corn into his bag. This made for an amusing moment when Jacobson reached in for one of his inspirational books. On his living room wall were two prominent portraits: Sallman's "Head of Christ" and Dwight Eisenhower. Remember, this was Kansas.
Jacobson himself in "Adventures" tells of his call to Marquette. He was serving as interim when the congregation issued a call with terms of a few hundred dollars per year and parsonage. The candidate responded favorably, provided they also supply him with feed for his cow. Someone of the congregation then suggested that this condition was an omen that this was not the Lord's man for them, and since they were pleased with Jacobson and he was already there, that they call him instead. And so they did.
A rare survivor of Mission Academe: Walden College
On down the road, now, to McPherson. The county seat of McPherson county, it is not part of the old Smoky Valley but nevertheless a place significant to the immigrant church. Here, in 1904, the Mission Covenant built Walden College and placed at its head the legendary David Nyvall. There is much about this story that remains unknown. There must have been high hopes in those days, some relating to the windfall of funds from the Alaska gold mine discovered by Covenant missionaries. According to one account, those promised funds failed to materialize, and Walden, after only a few years, was sold to the Free Methodists. To their credit, they have continued under the new name, "Central Christian College" to this day. Since the door was open, we entered the very hallway that Nyvall would have walked.
Hallways uniquely a part of David Nyvall's story
"And I have felt a presence that disturbs me with the joy of elevated thoughts."
Back on earth, the Mission Covenant church in McPherson is in its third location and a most impressive one on the northeast quadrant of the city. In the older Swedish section there were some churches suggestive of older congregations. One was now home to the humane society, but the current occupants could not tell the full history of the building. Another had been a Baptist church, now a dental office. The newer Augustana church remains in the old neighborhood.
A thriving legacy for Kansas Covenanters: Countryside Church
Yes, that is a silo in the background
New Gottland Covenant church
Making our way back toward Lindsborg, we made a swing to the right to visit the neighborhood of New Gottland. If memory serves, this was the place where seminary Dean Glenn Anderson spent his internship and met Jeanette, who would become his wife. Dean Anderson would recount with obvious delight the response of one of the New Gottland parishoners upon first hearing him preach: "Ni är Missionsvännen!"...."you are a (real) mission friend." The way in which he told this story left no doubt that this meant more to Glenn than did his theology degrees!
Authoritative sources: Glenn Anderson and Karl Olsson in "Order of the North Star" attire
Karl's aristocratic bearing is not feigned
It was an honor and a privilege to receive instruction in Covenant church history from Glenn Anderson and Karl A. Olsson, who together taught that subject. They infused in me something that has never gone away.
One would have thought that the Augustana and Missionfriend churches were situated so that each could "keep and eye" on the other! So it is in New Gottland, where the two are in sight of one another, and as ususal the Lutheran is by far the more impressive edifice. (The ultimate such contrast must be Stanton, IA, where standing at the entrance to Mamrelund, one is at eye-level with the steeple top of the Covenant church just a block away!)
Though muted by a cloudy day, New Gottland Lutheran's dramatic colors suggest "Scandinavian"