Eidfjord Evangelical Lutheran. Church is located in Dover Township, Hannaford, North Dakota.
It was the desire of these early settlers to have a place of worship very soon after they settled on the prairie, each one settling on a quarter of land given by the government. The earliest settler to spend the winter in the area was Lars Pederson, his wife and three small children: Pete, Synva and Sever.
It was to this family that the other settlers came to stay while they sought land and began establishing buildings, etc., on their homesteads.
A strong band of friendship existed among these settlers, each striving to make a living and establishing their homes. They shared the times of sorrow and the happy occasions.
Much credit goes to Torfin Swenson and Lars Pederson for being instigators in church work and also in the educational field. For Torfin, it was nothing new to organize a church, as he had experience in that field while living in Wisconsin. For Lars Pederson, it was a new adventure, as he was a recent immigrant from Norway. However, he was very interested in organizing a parochial school and church. The neighbors came to his home for devotional services on Sundays. At these meetings, Mrs. Pederson served dinner to the entire group, either before or after services.
A young pastor, Ole R. Gronvold, had the interest of the early settlers at heart and traveled around the country holding services wherever he could.
On June 1, 1885, some of the men of this community met with representatives from Walum and Hannaford communities to discuss plans for calling a pastor to serve in these areas. The meeting was held at the Aslak Gunderson home. Rev. Gronvold acted as chairman. Although nothing definite was decided, it helped to unite these groups to work towards a goal.
On July 13, 1885, a meeting was held at School No. 1, in Helena Township for the purpose of organizing a congregation and employing the services of a pastor. A constitution was drawn up and signed by many men in the area. Lars Pederson acted as temporary chairman and Nicholai Swenson acted as secretary. The constitution stated the name of the constitution should be Eidfjord Norwegian Evangelical Lutheran Church. Most of these early pioneers had come from Eidfjord in Hardanger, Norway. It was quite natural to name their church Eidfjord after their Norway church.
The first pastor to be called was Rev. Ole E. Gronvold who lived northwest of Cooperstown. He also served a congregation in Sheyenne Valley. He served the Eidfjord congregation two years, delivered sermons in the schoolhouse, gave religious instruction to the children and visited various families.
Desiring to have more regular services, the Eidfjord congregation met with the congregations of Bald Hill and Dazey to form a parish. The meeting was held on December 2, 1887; however, Dazey withdrew. The congregations of Eidfjord and Bald Hill joined and elected Lars Pederson to contact Professor Schmidt of Northfield, Minnesota, regarding the calling of a pastor. As a result, P. A. Thoreson came to investigate conditions. He accepted the call and was ordained by Pastor Bjorn in 1888. Services were held in Helena School No. 1. His salary was $500 a year. He was pastor of this parish for 33 years.
That same year, seven women organized the Ladies Aid. They were Mrs. P. A. Thoreson, Mrs. Erik Heyerdahl, Mrs. Vellik Hanson, Mrs. Lars Pederson, Mrs. Isaac Ellefson, Mrs. Christian Sabby, and Miss Anna Swenson, sister of Nick Swenson. Mrs. Erik Heyerdahl was president for the first year. The next president was Mrs. P. A. Thoreson. She held that office for 30 years. Much was accomplished in those years to help in the furnishings of the church.
In those early days, they met in the homes and served dinners and all the families attended. It was a great day of fellowship. They set aside $50 each year for the church building fund. The rest was sent to missions. When the church was built, they had $400 to apply on the building fund.
In 1890, after delivery of the constitution and accepted articles, the congregation became a member of the United Lutheran Church.
There was much discussion where the church was to be built, but after the death of Mrs. Christian Sabby, they had to come to a decision as to a cemetery and where to build a church. Lars Pederson gave two acres of land on the southwest corner of Section 24. The congregation accepted the offer and thus ended the controversy of the church site. This was just south of the present church site.
They decided each member should set aside one half to one acre of the wheat harvest for the church fund.
They had some years of depression such as grasshoppers and very dry years which delayed the building of the church, but in December 1900, the plans were completed and accepted by the congregation and John Brekke of Hannaford and Ed Peterson of Courtenay were given the contract to build the church.
Services were still being held in the Helena School. Records show that each member paid ten cents to buy fuel to heat the school. Transportation was provided for Pastor Thoreson. In 1888, the congregation bought him a horse and sleigh, and later they bought him another horse, so he could have a team.
At this time, some of the people living in Mabel Township organized a new congregation and built a church in 1899. It was called Mabel Lutheran Church and was a member of Hannaford Parish until 1924. There were now four churches in the parish: St. Olaf, Hannaford, Mabel and Eidfjord.
Although the church was not quite completed, services were held December 26, the second day of Christmas in 1901. The church was dedicated on July 24, 1907, with Pastor T. H. Dahl, chairman of the United Church, in charge and assisted by district pastors.
The three other churches in the parish were dedicated at this time also.
On May 25, 1916, a tornado swept through the community and left much destruction in its path, Many buildings were destroyed but no one was killed or injured. Both Eidfjord Church and St. Olaf Church were destroyed. A new building committee had to be selected. In March 1918, they accepted the blueprint of John Hanson of Fingal to build the new church. This time it was built across the ravine, north of the former building site. The new building was dedicated October 17, 1920.
In 1917, the United Lutheran, together with two other Norwegian Synods, merged to form the Norwegian Lutheran Church of America. Eidfjord then became a member of this new synod.
From the beginning, services and religious instruction were in the Norwegian language, but since the younger people were using the English language, in 1921, they decided to have every third service in English. Also Confirmation instruction was changed to English. By 1938, every fourth service was in the Norwegian language. Later it was dropped altogether.
In 1921, after having served the parish for 33 years, Pastor Thoreson resigned. He had seen many changes from the days of the pioneers up to that time. Many churches had been built and memberships had increased. Babies he had baptized, he later confirmed and still later joined in marriage.
In 1925, Eidfjord celebrated its 40th anniversary.
In 1924, Mabel congregation joined with the Binford charge, and the Union congregation, formerly the Luverne charge, joined the three congregations to form the Hannaford Parish.
In 1930, Rev. E. O. Lee was called to take charge of the parish. He faithfully served until 1947.
These were the depression years when he came. His salary, which wasn't large, was reduced and to help keep his family, the pastor milked cows and sold milk to some of the families of Hannaford. Times were very hard for townspeople and farmers alike.
The John Mikelthun family left Eidfjord congregation in 1931. Before they left, Mr. Mikelthun constructed a history from the old secretary reports. This was later translated to the English language by Esther Peterson Michaelson (Mrs. C. W. Michaelson), for which Eidfjord Church was very grateful. It has helped so much for the writers in later years.
In July 1935, Eidfjord Church celebrated its 50th anniversary.
Rev. Edward Bersagel served the parish from 1954-1957. There was discussion on dividing the parish. It was hard to get a pastor to serve four parishes. Rev. Alexander Thompson, however, accepted the call and served two years. In 1959, the Hannaford parish asked to be released from the parish. The three remaining congregations bought the parsonage in Hannaford and selected the name Trinity Lutheran Parish.
In August 1959, Pastor Soren Urberg accepted the call to serve this new parish.
In 1960, St. Olaf and Eidfjord Churches celebrated their 75th anniversary. Having to serve food from tents, the congregation realized plans should be made for the construction of a new basement, since the old foundation was in need of repair. So work was begun. In June 1965, we dedicated the basement, also celebrating the 80th anniversary of the church.
On July 13, 1975, we celebrated our 90th anniversary of St. Olaf and Eidfjord churches. Many of our former pastors were in attendance.
In 1969, Trinity Parish built a new parsonage in Hannaford. Rev. and Mrs. Staveness moved into the new parsonage in December 1969. The parsonage was dedicated on June 18, 1972. All three Congregations served dinner at the Hannaford School to the public.
The following pastors have faithfully served our parish:
| Rev. P. A. Thoreson |
1888-1921 |
| Rev. George Natvick |
1921-1924 |
| Rev. John Haaland |
1924-1927 |
| Rev. E. O. Stenson |
1928-1929 |
| Rev. E. O. Lee |
1930-1947 |
| Rev. Roy Gilbertson |
1949-1953 |
Rev. Jersing Thompson served a short time until he became ill, and then student pastor, Lyle Rich filled in until Rev. Bersagel arrived.
| Rev. Edward Bersagel |
1954-1957 |
| Rev. Alexander Thompson |
1957-1959 |
| Rev. Soren Urberg |
1959-1963 |
| Pastor Knudson from Dazey conducted services until Rev. Milton Olson came in December |
1963-1968 |
| Rev. L. A. Staveness |
1968-1971 |
| Rev. Arvid Jacobson |
1971-1975 |
Rev. John Baxter came in March 1976, and left in September 1978. Rev. Chester Johnson was our interim pastor until Rev. David Fretham was installed in July 1979. He served until November 1984. Rev. Rydquist served as interim pastor until Pastors Galen and Helen Beth Kuhens were installed January 27, 1985.
We celebrated the 100th anniversary of our church on June 15, 1985. Our theme was “To God Be the Glory." It was a great day for former members and friends who had come back to help celebrate the occasion.
Pastor Galen and Helen Beth Kuhens left in June 1988, to accept a call to the Tokio Indian Mission.
Pastors Paul and Margo Fohs of the Dazey parish served our parish as well as some interim pastors until January 15, 1989, when Pastors Bob and Mary Albing were installed as pastors of Trinity Parish. They have two children, Daniel and Hannah.
More than a hundred years have passed since those early pioneers discussed the need for a church in their community. The final plans for building a house of worship, establishing schools, building their homes in a place so barren, nothing but prairie as far as the eye could see, we must say, "Thanks be to God" for guiding our forefathers on their way. Blessed be their memories!
The present officers of Eidfjord Lutheran Church are as follows:
Trustees
Douglas Gronneberg,
Charles Heyerdahl,
John Thompson.
Deacons
James Michaelson,
Robert Hanson,
Gary Heyerdahl.
Secretary
Christine Gronneberg,
Treasurer
Raymond Walks.
The present officers of the ELCW are:
President Clara Walks,
Vice President Gladys Tweit,
Secretary Esther, Thompson,
Treasurer Charlene Messer,
Education Secretary Kathie Hanson and
Stewardship Secretary Christine Gronnebe
Source: Hannaford Area History North Dakota Centennial 1889 - 1989 Page 61