A Lutheran church that began by worshiping in the homes of pioneer settlers along the Black River is celebrating 100 years.

Bethany Lutheran Church in Loman will celebrate its centennial at 2 p.m. Sunday at the church. Anyone interested in the origin of the church is encouraged to attend the event, which will include a short program. Members and non-members are also invited to attend to reminisce with friends over coffee and refreshments.

Having been around for 84 of its 100 years, Jim Palm, of Loman, recalled that his first memories were of attending the church. The church has always been there for him, he said, adding that church services were rarely canceled due to weather.

Palm said he finds it hard to believe that it’s been 100 years.

“When you get to be my age, you wonder, ‘How did I ever get to be this old?’” he said.

Palm and his cousin Paul Johnson, of International Falls, are descendants of one of the families that were charter members of the church. Their family came to the area to homestead in 1902 from a farm in the Litchfield-Cokato area. The homestead remains in the Johnson family.

But Palm gives credit to all the families that began the church, noting that many people were involved.

During the church’s early years, most of the congregation lived in the Black River area and met in homes. Later, the group met in a one-room school house called the Norman School, Palm said.

Johnson said they mostly walked to church in the early years of living up the Black River. The 92-year-old added that by the time he was confirmed in 1932, the family had a 1921 Model T and rode in “high class” to church.

Johnson said he attended Bible school in the Norman School with the children of the Bergstrom, Skifstrom and Moss families. The pastor at the time was the Rev. Axel Berg, who was a “nice fellow,” he said. The school house received its name from the first family that lived in the area, he said.

Johnson also attended classes at the Norman School during the school year. About 25 students in first through eighth grade learned together in the one room. Johnson remembered that it was cold a lot, but the room had a “good size stove” to keep them warm.

The walk to the Norman School was more than a mile, often times, against a northwest wind, Johnson said. During the winter, it seemed colder and snowier than it does now, he added.

The church, as it stands today, was built from 1926 to 1931. Johnson’s father Erick Gustav “E.G.” Johnson, a rock mason, built the foundation, steps and chimney for the new church with the help of his son.

Paul Johnson said he mixed the mortar for the brick work. Chunks of lime that looked like rocks were placed in a wooden box and water poured on them. The mixture would steam and the lime disintegrate. The mixture looked hot. And when he tested it by sticking a finger into the mixture he said he found that it was, indeed, hot.

About 50 people attended church each week when the new church was built, according to Johnson.

The church stands as a community center with groups using the building throughout the week, Palm noted.

100 years of history

The history of Bethany Lutheran Church, according to a written history by Loman resident Marilyn Dahl:

The Rev. Thomas W. Howard, who wanted to be “sent where no one else is willing to go,” learned there weren’t any pastors between International Falls and Baudette.

“Denominational differences were often overlooked on the frontier and people worshiped in union,” Dahl wrote.

During his first two years in the area, Howard established preaching stations along a circuit of 110 miles one-way between the Falls and Warroad. He would travel on foot or by canoe. He later traveled on a horse named “Charley.”

Howard established a homestead on the south shore of Rainy River at Howard’s Landing, which was renamed Birchdale in 1906. He was popular with both the Indians and the white settlers. He established several preaching stations where no town existed in the Black River area by traveling with his wife Susan. They traveled through swamp and black spruce, getting lost several times.

Meanwhile, a heavy influx of settlers moved to the area during the first decade of 1900.

Missionary Henry O. Hemming, of Roseau, would visit Scandinavian settlers where the Black River joins the Rainy River.

“To travel to the Falls in those days by overland route took most of the day. River transportation, while faster, required time in scheduling of boats,” Dahl wrote.

As a result of the distance to other communities, the settlers wanted a church nearby.

On Jan. 23, 1909, Hemming and the settlers met in the home of E.G. Johnson, about 4 miles southwest of Loman. Following a short service, they voted to establish the Swedish Evangelical Lutheran Bethany Church of Watrous Township. Hemming would serve as the chairman and Nels Hedlund was elected secretary of the group. They chose the 1887 version of the Augustana Lutheran Synod’s suggested constitution as their own.

The group filed the incorporation with the County Register of Deeds on March 27, 1909. The church’s records of the filing are in Swedish.

The Bethany congregation met as often as Hemming was able to come. Services were held in private homes, often in the home of Nels Hedlund.

They later met in a school house called the Norman School. Following the Norman School, the congregation met in a building in Loman that stood between Abner Palm’s home and the former creamery building, which was next to the present church. The building was used by churches of several different denominations on a missionary basis of serving settlers. It later became the Missouri Synod Lutheran, or St. John’s Church.

The present Bethany Lutheran Church was built on land donated by John Palm between 1926 and 1931. The Black River Ladies Aid purchased the lumber for the building, which was stolen. Arthur Dahlgren later purchased 10,000 square feet of lumber for $180.

The Ladies Aid also purchased church windows and held fund raisers with pie and ice cream socials and chicken suppers. They also sold quilts, towels and pillow cases, assorted goods of pencils, tablets, hairpins, toothpicks and aprons. The organization also helped pay Synod dues, pastor salaries, and carpenter labor. They also made loans to members with interest.

“We are grateful to the strong loyal men, women and children of those pioneer settlers who in the name of God, led to the building of this church and place of worship and fellowship,” Dahl wrote.

Charter members
The charter members of the church include Erick Gustav and Esther (Palm) Johnson; Nels and Karin (Johnson) Hedlund and their sons Nels Hedlund Jr. and Otto Hedlund; Nels and Mary Alstermark; William and Anna (Palm) Hagerty; Abner Palm; Anna (Hard) Hoard and son Gustav Adolph and daughter Huldah Hoard.

The names of Ed Skifstrom, Frederick Johnson and Gertrude Olson were also mentioned in the early organizational records.

Also instrumental in the early church were the families of John and Emma Palm (Albert, Simon, Alvida and Ida), Andrew Skifstrom (Ed and Charles), William Anderson, Ole Scheie and August Bergstrom.

Soon after, the families of Hugh McIntosh, Arthur Dahlgren, Ed Granstrom, Simon Hofdahl, August Karnofsky, Norman Scholta, and Ray and Katie Parmeter were added to the records as members.

Bethany Lutheran has had a pastoral connection with First Lutheran Church in International Falls since its founding. First Lutheran was founded Feb. 3, 1909 and was originally called Bethel and the Swedish Lutheran Church until March 15, 1927.

Both churches were served by the Rev. Edward Lindgren (1910-1912), Petrus O. Hanson (1913-1919), A. William Nordin (1920-1921), John Warmanen (1921-1924), E.A. Lindgren as vice pastor and Arvid Larson as assistant (1925-1927), C.D. Mattson (1927-1930) and Axel Berg (1930-1935).

- Compiled by Marilyn Dahl, of Loman