Norelius, Eric, 1833-1916

Erik Norelius, pastor, a founder, and eventual president of the Evangelical Lutheran Augustana Synod in North America was born on October 26, 1833, in Hassela, Helsingland, Sweden, to Anders Pehrson and Elizabeth Johnsdotter. Erik was one of five children and was named for an uncle who drowned in the river Skans several years earlier. The family was poor, living in Hassela where his father was a farmer who worked small fields, kept goats, and burned wood for charcoal to sell as a cash crop. Erik and his brothers worked hard as goatherds and as keepers of the charcoal kiln. In the latter work Erik was able to read the family¿s books including Luther¿s Small Catechism.

In a day of heavy drinking Erik¿s pietistic family were abstainers. His father soon discovered his son did not care for the farm so he arranged for him to attend school at Hudiksvall. He stayed at the home of a retired soldier eating the food he brought from home each weekend. Erik was the butt of ridicule because of his clothes, speech, and behavior. Because of poverty his formal education was brief.

During the early and mid 1880s, Sweden was strongly affected by the revival influenced by Carl O. Rosenius; a Finnish pastor, F.G. Heberg; and the preaching of Olaf Stromberg, a laborer. Erik¿s confirmation pastor, Jonas Rolin, was a simple mannered, conscientious leader who had a strong influence on Erik the confirmand. Serving in rural Hassela, Pastor Rolin was viewed as a simple rustic by his professional peers.

At home the family had the Bible, the catechism, the Book of Concord, and Luther¿s Commentary on Galatians. This was heady reading for a young boy, but he read these books and on his own studied Latin. His school education was brief, but his learning desire was intense. Since his father could not afford to provide an education, Erik chose to emigrate from Sweden to America at the age of 17 with his older brother Anders. His Swedish immigrant group was met by a man who suggested they go to Bethel Ship, a large ship in New York used as a church led by a Methodist missionary Olaf G. Hestrom. After several weeks of worshipping at the Bethel Ship, young Norelius indicated he was to be a pastor.

From New York City to Buffalo by train, the immigrants traveled by boat to Chicago and shortly after arriving met Gustav Unonius, a Swede who had become an Episcopalian and who believed that the Episcopalian church in America was the only church in line with the beliefs and polity of the Church of Sweden. He offered to help Norelius find a place to attend school if he joined the Episcopalian church. This offer did not appear to appeal to Norelius because he and the others he had been traveling with set off for Andover, Illinois, He arrived in Andover on November 23, 1850, after making the last stage of the journey on foot in a blinding snowstorm. The next day he set out to meet the only Swedish Lutheran pastor in Andover, the Rev. Lars P. Esbjorn, who after meeting and talking with Norelius agreed to assist him in finding a place to live and a school to attend. While Norelius appreciated the efforts Pastor Esbjorn made in finding him a place to attend school and assistance with which to do so, Norelius began to perceive himself as a °charity caseℓ of Esbjorn¿s and that Esbjorn was asserting too much authority over him.

Shortly before Christmas, Norelius thanked the pastor and his family and set out for Galesburg, Illinois, and later to Rock Island and Moline, cities north of Galesburg. While he did spend several months in these cities, in May 1851 he traveled to Columbus, Ohio, to enroll at Capital University. Dr. William Reynolds, president of Capital, had persuaded Jenny Lind, the Swedish opera singer, to endow Capital with a fund to be used for Scandinavian students. Erik Norelius was the first recipient of these funds. He left school for approximately one year and worked in the Chisago Lake area in Minnesota. He then returned to Capital.

Norelius quit school at Easter time in the spring of 1855. His reasons for this included the fact that he had traveled to West Point, Indiana and was preaching in settlements there. On April 11-12, 1855, Erik Norelius applied for examination, was examined, and subsequently was granted an interim license to preach by the Synod of Northern Illinois. It was in West Point where he met and then married his wife, Inga Charlotta Peterson on June 10, 1855.

On September 12, 1856, Norelius was ordained by the Synod of Northern Illinois on a call to serve the church at Red Wing, Minnesota where he was pastor from 1856-1858. On October 8, 1858, the Minnesota Conference was organized at Stillwater, Minnesota. During this period Pastor Norelius was editor of the newspaper, Hemlandet and served successive congregations in Attica, Indiana, Vasa, Minnesota, and the Red Wing/Goodhue area in southern Minnesota. He would serve congregations in that area for the remainder of his life.

On June 5-11, 1860, 26 pastors and 15 lay delegates met at Jefferson Prairie, Wisconsin to organize a Scandinavian church and to leave the Synod of Northern Illinois which had been organized in 1851. At 26, Pastor Norelius was the youngest participant. At this meeting he proposed the name Augustana, and also that the synod form a home mission committee to call a traveling pastor, known as a circuit rider. Norelius left his beloved congregation at Attica to move his family to St. Paul, Minnesota to become the frontier circuit rider. He traveled 600 miles, preached 67 times, baptized five children, organized one congregation attended one conference meeting at Decorah, Iowa, and one synodical session at Galesburg with total pay of 377.76. Unfortunately he was in debt 117.24.

Early in pioneering, the personalities of L.P. Esbjorn and T.N. Hasselquist began to play a part in the new synod and then the personalities of Hasselquist and Norelius, with Esbjorn siding with Norelius, began to play a part in the development of the young church. No doubt Hasselquist had more easily adapted to the American life with its pluralism. With the new Augustana Synod, the new seminary was located in Chicago, but Hasselquist wanted to relocate it to Paxton, Illinois. Norelius proposed the seminary be located in Minnesota saying there were more Swedes in Minnesota than Illinois. Hasselquist contended that churches were larger and stronger in Illinois. Norelius contended Paxton was too far away and subsequently he established Minnesota Elementar L⁴roverk in Red Wing. This contention between the two men, warm but quite polite, continued and eventually Augustana settled in Rock Island in 1875 and Gustavus Adolphus College, as successor to Minnesota Elementar and Ansgar Academy, settles in St. Peter, Minnesota the same year. The °school questionℓ remained an issue in Augustana almost to the end of its history.

A good natured contention or not, Hasselquist had Det Ratta Hemlandet; Norelius: Minnesota Posten; Hasselquist: Augustana College and Theological Seminary; Norelius: Gustavus Adolphus; Hasselquist: Andover Children¿s Home; Norelius: Vasa Children¿s Home. In 1948 with both leaders gone, the Augustana Church separated the college and seminary and with merger into the Lutheran Church in America moved the seminary to Chicago.

In the early Minnesota Conference, the convention elected a chairman who presided and planned the service for the next convention, often meeting three times a year. Later the term was a year. Norelius served seven years as conference president. Jonas Swensson of Andover, Illinois was the second president of the Augustana Synod succeeding T.N. Hasselquist. When Swensson died, Norelius was elected president and served from 1874-1881. In 1899 when he was 66, he was elected again as the only president to serve two different periods. This election was preceded by hot political promoting by friends and rivals, but Norelius is said to have taken no part. He served a term that lasted until 1910.

Norelius was frequently handicapped by illness but never stopped. When limited and when not, he could use his time in writing. His biggest work was the two volume De Svenska Lutherska Forsamlingarnas och Svenskarne Hisotria I Amerika. Volume I was 871 pages and published by the Augustana Book Concern in 1890. Volume II was 527 pages and the book concern published it in 1916. While he often contended for Minnesota against Illinois with Hasselquist, he admired his friend and wrote a 338-page biography of him.

As editor and frequently as publisher, he worked on Minnesota Posten, Hemlandet, Augustana, Korsbaneret, the quarterly Tidskrift, and finally with Safferen Missionaren. Church polity was one of his interests, so he found expression in the constitution of the Minnesota Conference, St. Ansgar Academy, Gustavus Adolphus College, the Augustana Pension and Aid Fund, Augustana College and Theological Seminary and regulations for home missions.

He was honored by Augustan College and Seminary with a D.D. in 1892 and L.L. Div. in 1910 as synod president at the synod jubilee. He was made a member of Sweden¿s Royal Order of the North Star in 1903 and Commander in 1910 by the Swedish king, Gustav V. Erik Norelius served the Synod of Northern Illinois and the Augustana Synod for 60 years. He and his wife were married 60 years and had four sons and one daughter. Pastor Norelius died on March 15, 1916, at Vasa, Minnesota.